Euploca purdiei (I.M.Johnst.) J.I.M. Melo & Fern. Alonso, 2015

Melo, José Iranildo Miranda De & Fernández-Alonso, José Luis, 2015, A new combination and new synonym in the Neotropical Heliotropiaceae, Phytotaxa 222 (2), pp. 162-164 : 163

1. Euploca purdiei (I.M.Johnst.) J.I.M. Melo & Fern. Alonso , comb. nov.

Basyonim: Heliotropium purdiei I.M.Johnst. (1928: 60) . Type:— COLOMBIA. Magdalena: “Valle Dupar”, Santa Marta, July 1844, Purdie s.n. (holotype K!, isotype GH!).

2. Tournefortia romeroi I.M.Johnst. (1956: 294) . Type:— COLOMBIA. Nariño: Km 86 Tumaco, El Diviso, 27 Julio 1952, R. Romero-Castañeda 3317 (holotype A!, isotype COL 50007!).

= Tournefortia spicata J.S. Mill. , syn. nov. (1989: 619–622). Type:— COLOMBIA. Mpio. Tumaco, 80 Km from Tumaco along road to Pasto, in wet area of primary forest, near Orbignya palms and streams, “Guayacana”, 19 July 1984, M. J. Balick, L. E. Forero P., S. R. King & N. Hernández 1667 (holotype MO!, isotype MA 400047!).

Several species of Tournefortia sect. Tournefortia I.M.Johnst. (1930: 66) are encountered on moist Pacific-facing slopes in Colombia and Ecuador, among which is T. romeroi , which grows below 500 m a.s.l. in Nariño Department, Colombia ( Johnston 1956, Miller 2015b). Other species were recently described there and are considered endemic to that region, including: T. spicata , from the Pacific plains near Nariño; T. restrepoae J.S.Mill. , from mountain forests near La Planada, Nariño, at 1800 m ( Miller 1989, 1995); and T. gigantifolia J.S.Mill. , widespread throughout western Colombia and Peru ( Miller 2000).

The species Tournefortia restrepoae and T. gigantifolia can be clearly distinguished from T. romeroi : the former due to its lax inflorescences with pedicellate flowers, and the latter due to its monocaulous habit, with very large grouped-leaves, with glabrescent blades punctuated on their upper surfaces. The known collections of T. spicata , however, are very similar to T. romeroi in terms of their sizes, indumentum, leaf features, inflorescences, and floral reproductive whorls. The slight differences in leaf morphologies, inflorescences, and flowers noted in the description of T. spicata are within the range of variability of T. romeroi . Accordingly, we consider T. spicata conspecific with the previously published T. romeroi .