Palhinhaea camporum (B. Øllg. & P.G. Windisch) Holub (1991: 93)

Øllgaard, Benjamin, 2020, Lycopodiaceae in Colombia: Subfamilies Lycopodioideae and Lycopodielloideae, Phytotaxa 433 (3), pp. 195-224 : 209

Palhinhaea camporum (B. Øllg. & P.G. Windisch) Holub (1991: 93) .— Fig. 5D–F .

Lycopodiella camporum Øllgaard & Windisch (1987: 24) . Type:— BRAZIL: Est. Minas Gerais: Mun. Santana do Riacho, estrada Lagoa Santa –Conceição do Mato Dentro, km 113, Serra do Cipó, corrego do Vitalino, 1150 m elev, campo rupestre, parte alta do barranco do corrego, inundada durante as cheias, 1 Feb. 1987, J. Prado et al. 69 (HB holotype, AAU, RB, SP, SPF, isotypes).

Plants with short to long, arching-looping runner shoots, rooting at soil contact, bearing stiffly erect, dorsally arising, amply branched, to 1 m tall, tree-like aerial shoots. Erect axes bearing several, subdecussate to alternate, often densely aggregated, stiffly ascending, 5–10 (–20) cm long lateral branchlet systems. Ultimate branchlets 2.5–7 mm in diam. incl. leaves, stiffly ascending to erect, only the strobiliferous ones rather sharply recurved at the tip. Branchlet leaves usually borne in densely crowded, alternating low spirals or oblique whorls of 5–7, forming 10–14 longitudinal ranks, 2.5–4 × ca. 0.3–0.5 mm, acicular, terete or angular (dried), sometimes flattened in the lower half, with often slightly acroscopically adnate and long decurrent leaf bases, patently arcuate-ascending to arcuate-appressed, entirely smooth to densely hairy on leaf bases, rarely with soft hairs on leaf margins. Strobili usually numerous, sessile, terminating recurved tips of ultimate branchlets, to 2.5 cm long, 2–3 mm in diam. Sporophylls borne in alternating whorls of 5–7, forming 10–14 longitudinal ranks, with coalescent leaf bases almost enclosing the sporangia, with broadly ovate, short to long cuspidate, 1.5–2 mm long, 0.6–0.9 mm wide free part, with scarious, coarsely erose-laciniate margins. Sporangia globose, ca 0.6 mm in diam.

Distribution: Amazonian Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, Savanna region of Venezuela and the Guianas, campos vegetation in Brazil.

Habitats: Swamps, moist campo-grasslands and savannas, on peaty or sandy soil, often in the light-open vegetation adjacent to gallery-vegetation at rivers, often subject to flooding during the rainy season; 200–700 m elev.

Notes: The distinctive branching habit and characteristic ecology makes Palhinhaea camporum a rather easily recognizable and biologically well-defined taxon, although detail characters do not seem strong.

Amazonas: Río Cahuinarí, 500 m, 10.8 km from the outlet of the river, Duivenvoorden et al. 57 (U). Caquetá: Araracuara, near airstrip, 72°24’W 0°37’S, Duivenvoorden 326 (AAU). Meta: Llanos Orientales, Altillanura ondulada con morichales, Blydenstein & Saravia 867 (COL). Llanos Orientales, La Macarena, parte S, 235—700 m, García-Barriga & Mejia 17116 (COL). 10 km from Remolino, Pinto & Sastre 806 (COL). Puerto Gaitán, 250 m, Pinto & Sastre 1136 (COL). 2 km E of Río Zanza, N end of Cord. Macarena, 500 m, Smith & Idrobo 1546 (COL, GH, MO, UC, US). La Macarena, N bank of Río Guëjar, Thomas et al. 1507 (COL). Vaupés: Circasia, margen Vaupés, 200 m, Cuatrecasas 7162 (COL, US). Circasia, sandy savanna, quartzite base, 250 m, 0°45’N 70°30’W, Schultes & Cabrera 19699 (SI, US). Río Piraparaná, Loma Buchia, 250—600 m, Garcia-Barriga 14309 (COL, US). Piedra de Cocuí, Schultes & López 9498 ( US). Mitú, Zarucchi 1413 (K)

Figures

FIGURE 5. A: Palhinhaea cernua (Ecuador: Holm-Nielsen et al. 4494, AAU) growth habit. B. Strobiliferous branchlets. C. Sporophyll. D: Palhinhaea camporum (Brazil: Prado et al. 69, AAU), growth habit. E: Vegetative branchlet. F: Sporophyll. G. Palhinhaea riofrioi (Ecuador: Harling & Andersson 12811, AAU). H: Branchlet leaf. I: Sporophyll.