Lycianthes textitlaniana E.Dean, Phytologia (Dec 18, 2017) 99: 242. 2017

Dean, Ellen, Poore, Jennifer, Anguiano-Constante, Marco Antonio, Nee, Michael H., Kang, Hannah, Starbuck, Thomas, Rodrigues, Annamarie & Conner, Matthew, 2020, The genus Lycianthes (Solanaceae, Capsiceae) in Mexico and Guatemala, PhytoKeys 168, pp. 1-333 : 1

47 Lycianthes textitlaniana E.Dean, Phytologia (Dec 18, 2017) 99: 242. 2017 Fig. 106

Type.

Mexico: State of Oaxaca, Dto. Sola de Vega, Mpio. Santiago Textitlán, Colonia Nueva, 18 Aug 2006, Alma Zarate Marcos AZM-274 (holotype: MEXU [acc. # 1229513]; isotype: SERBO [acc. # 115451].

Description.

Small shrub, ca. 0.5 m tall. Indument of clear to white, uniseriate, multicellular, simple, crisped, glandular (glandular tip golden-yellow to grey), spreading trichomes 0.25-1 (1.5) mm long. Stems pale green (drying tan) when young, moderately to densely pubescent, not much compressed when dried in a plant press, becoming brown and woody with age; upper sympodial branching points dichasial and monochasial. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia usually paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 3-7 × 1.5-3 cm, the smaller ones with blades 1.5-5 × 0.5-2 cm, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades ovate, to elliptic, chartaceous, moderately to densely pubescent, the base truncate, cuneate, or attenuate, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, usually irregularly undulate, the apex acuminate, the petiole 0.1-1 cm long, sometimes absent, the larger leaf blades with 4-5 primary veins on each side of the midvein. Flowers solitary, axillary, oriented horizontally; peduncles absent; pedicels ca. 20-25 mm long and erect in flower, 20-30 mm long and erect to arching in fruit, moderately to densely pubescent; calyx 3-3.5 mm long, 3.5-4 mm in diameter, campanulate, moderately to densely puberulent, the margin truncate, with 10 spreading linear, basally flattened appendages 7-10 mm long emerging ca. 0.5 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, widely bowl-shaped, 4-6 mm long, 9-12 mm in diameter, appendages to 15 mm long; corolla 1.2-1.5 cm long, rotate in orientation, mostly entire in outline (with shallow notches), with abundant interpetalar tissue, purple and glabrous adaxially, color of abaxial side unknown, glabrous; stamens unequal, straight, the four short filaments 1-2 mm long, the one long filament 2-3 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 3.5-4 mm long, elliptic to lanceolate, free of one another, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores ovate, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style ca. 7 mm long, linear, glabrous, the stigma capitate, decurrent down two sides. Fruit a dry berry lacking juicy mesocarp, 13-15 mm long, 9-12 mm in diameter, turbinate, the tip apiculate, pale greenish orange when mature, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 50-80 per fruit, 1.75-2 × 1.25-1.5 mm, somewhat compressed, round-edged, reniform in outline, tan-orange, surface pitted.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Mexico (Oaxaca), in pine-oak forest, ca. 1500 m in elevation (Fig. 107 ).

Common names and uses.

None known.

Phenology.

A flowering and fruiting specimen has been collected in July. The timing of the diurnal corolla movements is unknown; however, the corollas are open on the two specimens of the type collection, indicating that the flowers are open for part of the day.

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes textitlaniana is a rare plant of Oaxaca, Mexico, represented by only one collection, which is not from a protected area and was burned in recent fires ( Dean et al. 2017b). The EOO is only 4 km2. Based on the very small EOO, and following the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Critically Endangered (CR).

Discussion.

Lycianthes textitlaniana is unlike any other Lycianthes species in its combination of glandular pubescence, relatively long calyx appendages, and dry turbinate berry with round-edged seeds with pitted surface.

Representative specimens examined.

This species is only known from the one type specimen cited above.

Figures

Figure 106. Image of holotype of L. textitlaniana, Zarate 274 (MEXU). Specimen used with permission from the Herbario Nacional de Mexico, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico.

Figure 107. Map of geographic distribution of L. textitlaniana based on herbarium specimen data.