Lycianthes stephanocalyx (Brandegee) Bitter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 18: 315. 1922

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

45 Lycianthes stephanocalyx (Brandegee) Bitter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 18: 315. 1922 Fig. 102

Solanum stephanocalyx Brandegee, Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 6: 374. 1917. Type: Mexico. Veracruz: Zacuapan, Jul 1915, C. Purpus 7519 (holotype: UC [UC178649]; isotypes: GH [00077535], NY [00139030]).

Lycianthes symphyandra Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Verein Bremen 24 [preprint]: 430. 1919. Type: Mexico. Veracruz: Mirador, 1842, F. Liebmann 1456 (lectotype designated by Dean and Reyes 2018a, pg. 44: C [C10022133]).

Solanum solitarium S.F.Blake, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 24: 21. 1922. Type: Guatemala. Izabal: Río Mojanales, 17 May 1919: S. F. Blake 7489 (holotype: US [00027803]).

Lycianthes solitaria (S.F.Blake) Standl., J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 17: 15. 1927. Type: Based on Solanum solitarium S.F.Blake.

Lycianthes luisana Standl., Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 22: 101. 1940. Type: Mexico. San Luis Potosí: Tamazunchale, Jul 1937, M. Edwards 913 (holotype: F [0072917F, acc. # 918327]; isotypes: ARIZ [ARIZ-BOT-0005035], CAS [0003290], MO [503464]).

Solanum symphyandrum (Bitter) C.V.Morton, Contr. Univ. Michigan Herb. 4: 27. 1940. Type: Based on Lycianthes symphyandra Bitter.

Solanum hondurense C.V.Morton, Contr. Univ. Michigan Herb. 4: 26. 1940. Type: Belize. El Cayo: Chalillo Crossing, 15 Jul 1936, C. Lundell 6512 (holotype: US [00027603]; isotypes: LL [00372878], MICH [1109936]).

Lycianthes hondurensis (C.V.Morton) Standl. & Steyerm., Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 23: 18. 1943. Type: Based on Solanum hondurense C.V.Morton.

Type.

Based on Solanum stephanocalyx Brandegee.

Description.

Perennial herb to climbing shrub, erect, often recumbent with age, to 2 (3) m tall, dying back to rhizomes. Indument of small, white, uniseriate, multicellular, simple, curved, eglandular, appressed-ascending trichomes 0.1-0.6 mm long. Stems green when young, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, compressed and ribbed upon drying in a plant press, brown and woody with age; upper sympodial branching points monochasial or dichasial. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia usually paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 3.5-15 × 1.5-6.2 cm, the smaller ones with blades 0.7-6.5 (10.5) × 0.5-3.1 (5) cm, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades ovate (sometimes narrowly), elliptic, or obovate, the blades of both the large and small leaves chartaceous to thick chartaceous, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, the base truncate, cuneate, or attenuate, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, the apex acute to acuminate, the petiole 0.1-0.9 (2) cm long, sometimes absent, the large leaf blades with 3-6 primary veins on each side of the midvein. Flowers solitary, axillary, pendent; peduncles absent; pedicels 12-45 mm and arching to deflexed in flower, to 53 mm long and deflexed in fruit, glabrous to sparsely pubescent; calyx 1.5-3 (4) mm long, 3-4 mm in diameter, obconic to campanulate, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, the margin truncate, with 10 linear, spreading to reflexed appendages 1.5-5 mm long emerging 0.5 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx usually enlarged, widely campanulate to bowl-shaped, 1.5-4 mm long, 3-8 mm in diameter, the appendages 2-8 mm long, spreading; corolla 0.5-1.4 cm long, campanulate to reflexed in orientation, stellate in outline, divided 1/3-2/3 of the way to the base, (lobes shallow on first day that the flower opens, becoming deeper each subsequent day that the flower opens), with interpetalar tissue, adaxially and abaxially white to light purple, glabrous; stamens equal, straight, the filaments 1-1.5 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 4.5-7 mm long, lanceolate, connivent to connate at edges to adjacent anther, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tip, the pores round, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 6-9 mm long, linear, straight, glabrous, the stigma truncate. Fruit a berry, 3-10 (17) mm long, 3-9 (12) mm in diameter, globose to ovoid, orange to red at maturity, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 7-60 per fruit, 1.5-3 × 1.5-2 mm, flattened, depressed ovate in outline, tan to orange, the surface reticulum with a tight serpentine pattern with shallow luminae.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Mexico (Chiapas, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Veracruz), Guatemala (Huehuetenango, Izabal, Petén), Belize, and Honduras (and possibly further south in Central America), in tropical rainforest, tropical dry forest, tropical moist forest, and cloud forest, sometimes in coffee plantations or disturbed forest, near rivers or waterfalls, in gorges, or on the sides of canyons, 30-1050 m in elevation (Fig. 103 ).

Common names and uses.

Mexico. San Luis Potosi: tomatillo, arrete de la virgin, flor de mariposa ( Standley 1940); Veracruz: masan ay (from herbarium specimen M. Leonti 71).

Phenology.

Flowering specimens have been collected May to September. Fruiting specimens have been collected September to December. It is possible this species flowers and fruits throughout the year in some locations. The first author observed in the field in Mexico that the corollas are open in the very early morning and closed by late morning.

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes stephanocalyx is a widespread species ranging from western Mexico to Honduras, represented by 68 collections and occurring in six protected areas. The EOO is 361,720.394 km2, and the AOO is 260 km2. Based on the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Least Concern (LC).

Discussion.

Lycianthes stephanocalyx is a rhizomatous herb (that can sometimes produce above-ground woody growth) with white stellate flowers and equal, connate anthers. Its closest relatives are not yet fully known, but they are probably other species with equal stamens and stellate corollas such as L. heteroclita and L. geminiflora . It was placed by Georg Bitter in his series Pilifera (Bitter, 1919), but it is probably not closely related to the other species he placed in the series, such as L. pilifera and L. quichensis , both of which are shrubs occurring at relatively high elevations ( Dean et al. 2019b). Lycianthes stephanocalyx is sometimes confused with L. pilifera in herbaria, because both species have flowers with equal stamens, and L. pilifera sometimes has one-flowered inflorescences. Lycianthes stephanocalyx does overlap in distribution with L. pilifera and differs in having red fruit (rather than dark purple), connivent yellow anthers (rather than free purplish anthers), and small whitish curved trichomes (rather than straight brown pointed trichomes) ( Dean et al. 2019b).

Representative specimens examined.

Guatemala. Huehuetenango: Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, between Xoxlac and Nucapuxlac, [15.3094, -91.4894], 1650-2500 m, 17 Jul 1942, J.A. Steyermark 48960 (NY). Izabal: Chickasaw Farm of the United Fruit Company, about 15 km north of Quirigua, 70 m, 28 May 1922, P.C. Standley 24628 (GH). Petén: Dolores, bordering Río Mopan, in clearing 6 km SE, [16.5089, -89.4065], 29 Jun 1961, E. Contreras 2566 (CAS, MO). Mexico. Chiapas: Mpio Ocosingo, 5 km al S de Campamento COFOLASA, el cual está a 24 km al SE de Crucero Corozal, camino Palenque-Boca Lacantum, [16.6556, -90.8063], 220 m, 24 Sep 1984, E. Martínez S. 7847 (NY). Hidalgo: 53 km al noreste de Zimapan, [21.1662, -98.9166], 1000 m, 7 Nov 1979, R. Hernández Magaña 3898 (MEXU). Oaxaca: Dto. Tehuantepec, 3 km al norte de Santa María Guienagati, carretera a Guevea de H, 16.7167, -95.3667, 460 m, 27 Aug 1991, A.D. Campos-Villanueva 3849 (MEXU). Puebla: road (575) Cuetzalan to San Antonio Rayón [Santiago Yancuictalpan], 20.0617, -97.4706, 592 m, 10 Nov 2014, P. Acevedo-Rodríguez 16044 (DAV). Querétaro: 2 km al sureste de Neblinas, Río Tancuilín, 21.2662, -99.0537, 610 m, 12 Sep 1990, H. Rubio 1954 (DAV, IEB). San Luis Potosí: San Antonio, [21.6180, -98.9039], 7 Sep 1978, J. Alcorn 1649 (TEX). Tabasco: a orillas del Chinilkija en el ejido Linda Vista, [17.4058, -91.5075], 2 Aug 1990, M.A. Magaña 2299 (MEXU). Veracruz: 6 km en línea recta al sureste de Zontecomatlán, ejido Cabellete, 20.7172, -98.3667, 800-1100 m, 8 Sep 2000, A. Rincón G. 1869 (IEB, MEXU).

Figures

Figure 102. Image of herbarium specimen of L. stephanocalyx, Dean 265 (DAV). Image used with permission of the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity.

Figure 103. Map of geographic distribution of L. stephanocalyx based on herbarium specimen data.