Capirona wurdackii Steyermark (1964: 190)

Delprete, Piero G., 2020, A new revision of Capirona (Rubiaceae, Ixoroideae, Condamineeae), with a new combination and additional notes on typification of the names involved, Phytotaxa 443 (1), pp. 101-106 : 103-104

Capirona wurdackii Steyermark (1964: 190) .

Type:— VENEZUELA. Amazonas, R. Casiquiare, Caño Duquiapo, Río Casiquiare, 2 km above Solano, 10 July 1959 (fl), J.J. Wurdack & L.S. Adderley 43383 (holotype NY [00131003], isotypes F [No. 1589345], K [K000173590], NY [00131004], P [P01900506], RB [00543500], SP [ SP 001527], U [ U 0005951], UC [ UC 1221544], US [00147045], VEN [No. 49458]).

Tree to 40 m tall, to 60(–100) cm dbh. Bark reddish-brown, smooth, exfoliating in longitudinal strips. Stipules intrapetiolar, free at base, oblong-elliptic, obovate to ligulate, (1.5–)3.5–7.5 × 0.7–2 cm, obtuse or acute at apex, glabrous or sparsely to densely hirtellous or sparsely pubescent outside, glabrous with a row of filiform colleters at base inside, reddish–brown, persistent. Petioles 1–4 cm long, 2.5–4 mm thick, glabrous, puberulent, hirtellous to pubescent; leaf blades elliptic to ovate to obovate, 10–60 × 6–45 cm, obtuse to acute–decurrent at base, obtuse to acute at apex, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, dark green above, pale green below, drying reddish-brown above and dark olivegreen below, glabrous above, glabrous, puberulent, hirtellous to densely pubescent below, primary and secondary veins glabrous or puberulent below; secondary veins 7–22 each side of midrib; domatia tuft of hairs or absent. Inflorescence paniculate, pyramidal, 10–35 × 7–25 cm, lateral branches 2–4(–5) pairs; peduncle 3–12 cm long; rachis glabrous, puberulent or pubescent; distal bracts ovate to oblong-ovate, up to 3–11 mm long, caducous or persistent; bracteoles present in most flowers. Flowers homostylous, 5-merous. Pedicels 3–8 mm long, glabrous or sparsely to densely pubescent. Hypanthium obovoid, 5–7 × 2–5.5 mm, glabrous, puberulent or sparsely pubescent. Calyx tube cupular to broadly cupular, 1.5–2.5 mm long, lobes broadly triangular, 1–2 mm long, glabrous or densely to sparsely puberulent to pubescent, in some flowers (usually the basal one for each terminal cymule) 1 calyx lobe expanded into a calycophyll. Calycophyll stalks 1–5.5 cm long, blades broadly ovate, narrowly elliptic to obovate, 3–8.5 × 1–5.5 cm, pale green, greenish-red, deep pink, red to pale purple. Corolla campanulate, 25–50 mm long, semi-fleshy, white to cream-white or pink, or tube pink and lobes purple; tube ribbed, 18–35 mm long, 3–5 mm wide at base, 10–21 mm wide at mouth, glabrous outside, with white-pubescent ring at stamen insertion (glabrous above and below) inside; lobes round to broadly ovate, 7–15 × 7–12 mm, round at apex, glabrous. Filaments 6–15 mm long, glabrous with a tuft of densely white-pilose hairs at base; anthers narrowly elliptic, 6–9 × 0.8–1 mm, glabrous. Style glabrous, minutely costate, 5–9 mm long, style branches oblong, 2–4 mm long. Capsules narrowly obovoid to broadly turbinate, 12–35(–45) × 7–13 mm, acute at base, rounded at apex, reddish-brown, glabrous, puberulent to sparsely hirtellous. Seeds irregularly elliptic-oblong in outline, 6–9 × 1.5–2.5 mm, wings with margin irregular and fringed at polar ends.

Notes: — Spruce (1859) collected the material that he used to describe Capirona decorticans . In the original publication he did not indicate a collection number or the herbarium of deposit. Kirkbride (1985: 50) indicated the type specimens as “Spruce 4202, Oct 1855, Tarapoto, San Martín, Peru (holotype: K; isotypes: F, K, NY, P)” without indicating which specimen at K is the holotype. Therefore, according to Art. 7.11 and 9.10 of the ICN ( Turland et al. 2018), this citation represents a first-step lectotypification, as he indicated Spruce 4202 at K as the type. As Spruce worked at K, it is fair to assume that he selected a specimen from this institution as type for this taxon; however, at K there are at least five specimens of Spruce 4202.

Andersson (1992) about the type of C. decorticans wrote “Type: Spruce 4202; Peru, San Martín (BR)”, which cannot be interpreted as a second step lectotypification because Kirkbride (1985) cited a specimen at K as the first-step lectotype. Two years later, for the same taxon, Andersson and Taylor (1994: 4) wrote “Type: Spruce 4202; Peru, San Martín, near Tarapoto, Oct. 1855 (K, holotype, photo NY-NS3193; BM, G, NY, P isotypes, MA fragment; F isotype, not seen).” The K specimen with barcode K000111193 has the label “New York Botanical Garden Neg. No: N.S. 3193 [1953]”, which confirms that this is the specimen cited as holotype by Andersson and Taylor (1994), and, according to Art. 7.11 and 9.10 of the ICN ( Turland et al. 2018) their citation is correctable to a second-step inadvertent lectotypification. Specimen K000111193 also has a label handwritten by Spruce starting with “4202 Capirona decorticans Spr. ” followed by a long description (a few sentences of which were reproduced in Spruce’s original description), and ending with “ Capirona decorticans gen. nov. Calycophyllum affine.” It also has a holotype label handwritten by an unknown author (not Kirkbride, not Andersson).

Distribution and ecology: —Widespread throughout the Amazonian Basin, in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil; rainforest canopy or undercanopy tree, common in gallery forests, in proximity of creeks and streams and on slopes, and often found in inundated forests (várzea), at 100–450 m altitude.

Conservation Status: —Least Concern [LC]. This species is a large tree distributed throughout the Amazon Basin, often present in large populations (pers. obs.) usually growing near river courses or in inundated forests. The Amazon River Basin extends for an area of about 6,869,000 km 2 and is impacted by increasingly larger areas of deforestation ( Barthem et al. 2005). Capirona macrophylla (Poeppig) Delprete is sometimes used as a source of timber for construction of houses, for artifacts and as firewood by local communities, but, considering its wide geographical distribution and its large, healthy populations, this limited usage does not represents a threat for this species. In addition, being a fast-growing species, it is often used in reforestation projects (e.g., https://www.reforestaction.com/en/blog/ peru-local-communities-develop-agroforestry-amazon-rainforest). Therefore, it is not under immediate danger, and for this species is suggested a Least Concern category according to IUCN criteria ( IUCN 2012, 2019).