Palhinhaea steyermarkii (B. Øllg.) Holub (1991: 93)

Øllgaard, Benjamin, 2020, Lycopodiaceae in Colombia: Subfamilies Lycopodioideae and Lycopodielloideae, Phytotaxa 433 (3), pp. 195-224 : 217

Palhinhaea steyermarkii (B. Øllg.) Holub (1991: 93) .— Fig. 9 .

Lycopodiella steyermarkii Øllgaard (1988: 149) . Type: ECUADOR: Prov. Napo: Road Baeza–Tena, ca km 23, ca. 2000 m, Øllgaard, Roth & Sperling 35959 (AAU holotype, QCA isotype).

Plants with long, slender, scandent, climbing, or creeping main axes, which give off lateral branchlet systems of spreading to flaccidly hanging, at least to 30 cm long branchlets. Main axes 1–1.5 mm thick excl. leaves, glabrous. Ultimate branchlets incl. leaves 4–5 mm in diam. Leaves of main axes distant, borne in drawn-out spirals or very irregular whorls, 8–12 seriate, acicular, semiterete to flattened, soft, with a long, slender tip, arcuate-ascending to appressed, 4–6 mm long, glabrous. Branchlet leaves softly to firmly herbaceous, arcuate-ascending to arcuate-appressed, 3–5 × ca. 0.5 mm, evenly tapering from the base, otherwise conform. Strobili to 9 cm long, ca 4 mm thick (with appressed sporophylls). Sporophylls borne in alternating whorls of 4, forming 8 longitudinal ranks, with coalescent sporophyll bases partly enclosing the sporangia, with lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, 4–5 × 1–1.5 mm exterior face, with shallowly erose-denticulate margins, of herbaceous, green texture throughout. Sporangia globose, 1—1.2 mm wide.

Distribution: Panamá, Venezuelan Guayana, Colombia, Ecuador.

Habitats: Terrestrial or epiphytic in pluvial montane forest, 1900–2200 m. In Venezuelan Guayana: Terrestrial, scrambling or creeping, with pendent branchlets, on shaded stream banks, sandstone escarpments, and moist bluffs, 1500–2700 m.

Notes: The strobili are remarkably long for this genus. They apparently remain meristematically active for a prolonged period, often having wilted and rotten sporophylls and sporangia at the stobilus base, and at the same time a fresh, actively developing strobilus apex.

Chocó: Mun. San José del Palmar. Cordillera de San Miguel, Cerro Panamá, S of Cerro del Torrá, summit, 2470–2510 m, 18 Aug 1988, Silverstone-Sopkin 4537 (AAU). Cerro del Torrá, summit, open herbaceous and shrubby vegetation, 2730 m, Silverstone-Sopkin 4438 (AAU). Putumayo: 40 km W of Mocoa, along road to Pasto, 2250 m, Maguire & Maguire 61832 (AAU, NY, UC). Valle: Road Cali–Buenaventura, km 18–20, 1500–2000 m, Cabrera & Werff 15776, 15826 (AAU).

Figures

FIGURE 9. Palhinhaea steyermarkii (Ecuador: Øllgaard et al. 35959, AAU). A1: Main branch with pendulous branchlet system. A2: Major branchlet. A3. Terminal branchlet. A4: Part of strobilus. A5: Part of strobilus showing partly enclosed sporangia.