Bessera ramirezii E. Gándara, Ortiz-Brunel, Art.Castro & Ruiz-Sanchez, 2021

Gándara, Etelvina, Ortiz-Brunel, Juan Pablo, Castro-Castro, Arturo & Sanchez, Eduardo Ruiz-, 2021, Morphological variation in Bessera (Asparagaceae: Brodiaeoideae) allows for the recognition of two new species, Phytotaxa 512 (4), pp. 257-271 : 265-269

Bessera ramirezii E. Gándara, Ortiz-Brunel, Art.Castro & Ruiz-Sanchez sp. nov., Figs. 4 C–D , 5 A–F

TYPE:— MEXICO. Colima: Colima, 19 km al suroeste de Colima, camino a Tecomán , 19°4’7.8’’ N, 103°46’41.9’’ W, 570 m, 4 August 2011 (fl) , A. Rodríguez et al. 6317 (holotype: IBUG!, isotype: MEXU!).

Bessera ramirezii is similar in form to B. elegans and B. elegantissima but differs in having the perianth dark purple; staminal tube purple, conical and flattened with cuneate filaments.

Perennial herbs from a corm. Roots fibrous. Corm ovoid, 1.6–3.2 × 1.7–4 cm, with brown parallel fibers and membranous tunics, collar 7–16(–27) mm long. Leaves 2–5(–8), 31–103 × 0.2–0.6 cm, linear, plano-convex, glabrous, margin minutely dentate. Inflorescence umbellate; scape 38–100 cm × 2–3.5 mm, glabrous at its upper portion and scabrous to dentate lower down; spathe bracts 2–4(–7), 6–11 mm long; umbel with 4 to 29 flowers. Flowers on pedicels 18–61 mm long, nodding at anthesis becoming erect after; perianth 19–31 mm long; tepals 13–19 × 3.9–7.8 mm, lanceolate to ovate, purple, with a prominent middle nerve, white striped at the internal face, united at the base forming a narrow tube, with an undulated margin; staminal tube 9–17 mm long, conical, stamens 6, exserted, joined to the perianth at the base; filaments dark purple, partially joined into a staminal tube by a continuous membrane; the free portion of the filaments cuneate, flattened, 4.8–8.8 mm long; anthers ellipsoid, dorsifixed, with longitudinal dehiscence, 0.7–1.2 mm long, blue; ovary ellipsoid, 1–4 mm long, style elongated, exceeding the stamens, purple, stigma 3-lobed or tubiform. Fruit a loculicidal capsule with apical dehiscence, oblong, 12.8–15.7 × 7.5–8.5 mm. Seeds irregular and slightly ridged, flattened, 3.5–4.2 × 1.8–2.2 mm.

Distribution, habitat and phenology:—The populations of Bessera ramirezii grow from 430 to 1700 m a.s.l., in tropical dry forest mainly or at the ecotone between oak forest and tropical dry forest. Where they grow, the soils are calcareous in origin. Also, one population is located on gypsum outcroppings. This species is only known from a few populations in the states of Colima and Jalisco in the Sierra Madre del Sur and the Pacific Lowlands provinces ( Fig. 1 ). It shares habitat with the trees Bursera spp. , Ceiba aesculifolia (Kunth) Britten & Baker f., Cnidosculus sp. , Eysenhardtia polystachya (Ortega) Sarg. , Lysiloma spp. , Manihot sp. , Plumeria rubra L., Quercus spp. , Thouinia acuminata S. Watson and Ziziphus mexicana Rose. Flowering specimens have been collected from June to October. Fruits have been collected from July to November.

N. Number of plants measured; S. E. Standard Error; S. D. Standard Deviation

Comparison:— Bessera ramirezii differs from B. elegans in floral size and color. All the plants from the two populations of B. ramirezii have flowers bigger than B. elegans and have perianth, tepals, staminal tube and filaments dark purple. Perianth in B. ramirezii is 19.63–30.87, tepals are 13.43–18.49 × 3.93–7.71 mm, and have an undulated margin, staminal tube is 9.32–17.15 mm long, filaments are 4.82–8.83 mm long and flat–cuneate. The perianth of B. elegans is 18.24–33.6 mm long, tepals are 7.19–24.02 × 4.76–10.18 mm long, carmine to red and the staminal tube is 7.48–16.56 mm long white or whitish, filaments are 7.8–21.7 mm long, terete, red or violet ( Table 2; Fig. 4 ).

Bessera ramirezii can be easily distinguished from B. elegantissima : it is smaller, with a perianth 11.73–26.92 mm long, tepals 11–18.8 × 4.4–7.5 mm and has a wide range of tepal colors from light red, scarlet, violet to magenta or fuchsia; the staminal tube is 7.5–13.2 mm long, whitish to violet or purple; the filaments are 5.3–10.2 mm long, semiterete violet or purple ( Table 2; Fig. 4 ).

Finally, Bessera ramirezii is quite different from B. tuitensis , because the perianth of B. ramirezii is 13.31–21.12, the tepals are 9.92–15.88 × 3.22–6.49 mm, pinkish to lilac, the filaments are connate at the base forming a ring, 1.07– 2.12 mm long, white, the filaments are 7.99–14.72 mm long, terete, and white ( Table 2, Fig. 4 ).

Etymology:—The specific epithet honors the memory of Raymundo Ramírez Delgadillo (1968–2011), professor of the Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico. He described Bessera tuitensis and told us about the possibility that this plant was a different species when we showed him the results of the phylogenetic analysis by Gándara et al. (2009). We have lovingly remembered Raymundo Ramírez Delgadillo over the ten years since he passed away.

Conservation status:—According to the results of the EOO (475.3 km 2) and AOO (40 km 2) analysis, this species fits criteria B1ab(i)+2ab(ii) and should be considered Endangered (EN) ( IUCN 2019).

Additional specimens examined:— MEXICO. Colima: Colima: mountains summit near pass ca. 11 miles southsouthwest of Colima on Manzanillo road, 500 m, 18 July 1957, R . McVaugh 15552 ( MEXU!); route 110 between km 17 and 18 ca. 17.5 km S of Colima , 500 m, 18 June 1971, R . Cruden 1885 ( MEXU!); 8 km delante de la desviación a Los Asmoles , carretera Colima-Manzanillo, 490 m, 29 July 1989, A. R . López-Ferrari et al. 917 ( MEXU!); 19 km al Suroeste de Colima, camino a Tecomán, 570 m, 4 August 2011, A . Rodríguez et al. 6317 ( IBUG!, MEXU!); camino de ascenso al cerro La Cumbre, a 100 km de la intersección con la carretera Méx. 110 entre Colima y Pihuamo, 450 m, 11 August 2005, A . Rodríguez & A . Castro-Castro 4331 ( IBUG!, MEXU!); 20.5 km al SW de Colima por la carretera Colima-Manzanillo , 431 m, 11 August 2005, A . Rodríguez & A . Castro-Castro 4332 ( IBUG!, MEXU!). Comala: Sitio 39, 3.3 km en línea recta al N de Campo Cuatro, camino a Lagunitas, 21 August 2002, G . Ibarra-Manríquez 5766 ( MEXU!); 12.5 km a partir de Juluapan, camino a Campo Cuatro , 1220 m, 11 October 2018, J. P . Ortiz-Brunel et al. 549 ( IBUG!); camino Juluapan a Campo Cuatro , 1049 m, 24 July 2020, E . Gándara et al. 3258 ( IBUG!); camino Juluapan-Campo Cuatro , 1049 m, 25 July 2020, J. P . Ortiz-Brunel et al. 828 ( IBUG!). Minatitlán: 8–9 km al NEE de Minatitlán, 5–7 km al SEE de El Sauz , 1550 m, 3 October 1988, R . Cuevas & G . López 3301 ( IBUG!, MEXU!); Cerro Grande, brecha que va de El Sauz a El Terrero, 1550 m, 1 August 1989, M . Cházaro B . 6026 ( IBUG!); 8 km de El Sauz camino al Terrero- 9–10 km al NE de Minatitlán , 1700 m, 24 August 1989, F. J . Santana-Michel 4509 ( MEXU!); 9–10 km al ENE de Minatitlán, km 7 y 8 de El Saúz al Terrero, Camino El Saúz-El Terrero, 1600 m, 26 July 1991, F. J . Santana-Michel et al. 5214 ( IBUG!, MEXU!); camino a El Terrero, 1651 m, 25 July 2020, E . Gándara et al. 3262 ( IBUG!) . Jalisco: Tolimán, brecha a Campo Cuatro, Sierra de Manantlán , 1500 m, 2 August 1990, R . Ramírez- Delgadillo 2170 ( IBUG!) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Geographic distribution of the genus Bessera. Red circles = B. elegans, fuchsia squares = B. elegantissima, blue rhombuses = B. ramirezii, and lilac triangles = B. tuitensis.

FIGURE 4. A. Bessera elegantissima, different perianth colors found in a single locality. B. elegantissima showing two different perianth and anther colors. C. Close-up of Bessera ramirezii, showing membranous staminal tube, flat filaments and anthers. D. B. ramirezii inflorescence showing some open flowers. E. Typical scarlet perianth of Bessera elegans. F. Bessera tuitensis inflorescence and flowers. Photos by Juan Pablo Ortiz-Brunel (C–F) and Eduardo Ruiz-Sanchez (A, B).

FIGURE 5. Bessera ramirezii. A. Complete plant with corms, leaves, inflorescence, flowers, and detail of scabrous scape at the base. B. Dissected flower. C. Flower, lateral view. D. Membranous staminal tube with filaments and anthers. E. Fruit. F. Seed. Watercolor illustration by Fátima Bracamontes.