Lycianthes purpusii (Brandegee) Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Verein Bremen 24 [preprint]: 382. 1919

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

37 Lycianthes purpusii (Brandegee) Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Verein Bremen 24 [preprint]: 382. 1919 Fig. 84

Solanum purpusii Brandegee, Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 6: 62. 1914. Type: México. Chiapas: Finca Mexiquito, C. Purpus 7011 (holotype: UC [acc. # 173078]; isotypes: F [0073141F, acc. # 415779]; NY [00139025]; US [00027766]).

Lycianthes purpusii (Brandegee) Bitter var. extensidentata Bitter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 20: 365. 1924. Type: Guatemala. San Francisco Miramare, Apr 1878, K. Bernoulli & O. Cario 2334 (holotype: GOET [GOET003449]).

Lycianthes vulpina Standl., Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 4: 321. 1929. Type: Honduras, Atlántida: Lancetilla Valley, 11 Jan 1928, P. Standley 54356 (holotype: F [0072925F, acc. # 583595]; isotypes: A [00934883], US [00027906]).

Type.

Based on Solanum purpusii Brandegee.

Description.

Shrub to woody vine, 2-10 m tall. Indument of long, pale yellow, orange, or red-brown, uniseriate, multicellular, simple, dendritically branched or long-stalked multangulate-stellate, eglandular, spreading trichomes 1-4 mm long, 0.75-1.4 mm in diameter, the rays of the multangulate trichomes 3-5 per whorl, straight, rarely rebranched, sometimes with an enlarged sphere where the rays join, the trichomes on an individual sometimes a mixture of colors and textures. Stems greenish-tan when young, moderately to densely pubescent, not compressed when dried in a plant press, becoming woody with age; upper sympodial branching points usually monochasial, sometimes dichasial, the branching sometimes zigzagging but not strongly divaricate. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia sometimes paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 3.5-15 × 2-8 cm, the smaller ones with blades 1.5-4.5 × 0.5-3 cm, ovate, elliptic or obovate (sometimes the small geminate leaf nearly orbicular), thick chartaceous, moderately to densely pubescent, the base cuneate to rounded, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, usually undulate, the apex acute to acuminate (rarely rounded on smaller leaves), the petiole 0.3-1.5 cm long, the larger leaf blades with 4-6 primary veins on each side of the midvein. Flowers solitary or in groups of 2-3, axillary, oriented horizontally to ascending; peduncles absent; pedicels (4) 8-20 (30) mm and erect to arching in flower, to 30 mm long and erect to arching in fruit, moderately to densely pubescent; calyx 3-4 mm long, 3.5-4.5 mm in diameter, campanulate, moderately to densely pubescent (sometimes nearly obscured), the margin truncate, with 10 very long spreading linear appendages 7-17 mm long emerging 0.5 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, widely bowl-shaped, 5-6 mm long, 11-14 mm in diameter, the appendages to 20 mm long, often curling over the fruit as it develops and then spreading when the fruit is mature; corolla 1.1-1.6 (2) cm long, rotate in orientation, nearly entire in outline, with very shallow lobes (divided about 3 mm toward the base), with abundant interpetalar tissue, white to pale blue-violet, glabrous adaxially, moderately pubescent with short trichomes abaxially near the veins; stamens unequal, the four short filaments 1-1.5 mm long, the one long filament 4-5 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 5-6 mm long, narrowly oblong to lanceolate, the anthers of some of the short anthers sometimes connivent at their edges to adjacent anther, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores obovate, those of the shorter stamens dehiscing away from the style, those of the long stamen dehiscing toward the style, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 10-12 mm long, linear, straight to slightly curved, glabrous, the stigma oblong, decurrent down two sides. Fruit a berry, 15-30 mm long, 15-30 mm in diameter, globose to depressed globose, green to white when immature, orange to red at maturity, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 20-50 per fruit, 3.5-4 × 3-3.5 mm, flattened, with thickened rim, depressed ovate in outline, tan to dark brown, the surface reticulum with minute serpentine pattern with shallow luminae.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca, Puebla, Veracruz), Guatemala (Baja Verapaz, Izabal, Petén), Belize, and Honduras, in primary or secondary high forest or tropical dry forest, very rarely in cloud forest at the upper part of its elevational range, often on limestone, 80-1000 (1500) m in elevation (Fig. 85 ).

Common names and uses.

None known.

Phenology.

Flowering specimens have been collected February to October. Specimens with mature fruits have been collected throughout the year. The corollas have been reported as opening at night ( Nee 1986), and all flowering specimens have closed corollas.

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes purpusii is a widespread species ranging from southern Mexico to Honduras, represented by 92 collections and occurring in eight protected areas. The EOO is 91,196.026 km2, and the AOO is 328 km2. Based on the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Least Concern (LC).

Discussion.

Lycianthes purpusii is a wide-ranging species of tall tropical forest and relatively low elevations. It is distinguished by very long calyx appendages (7-17 mm long in flower) and dendritically branched or long-stalked multangulate-stellate trichomes. The species is variable in leaf arrangement; the leaves are usually paired (geminate) in Honduras but unpaired in many places in Mexico. It is also variable in the length of the pedicels (sometimes becoming unusually long in Guatemala) and the color and density of the pubescence. This species is somewhat similar to L. furcatistellata Bitter of Costa Rica but differs from that species in habitat preference ( L. furcatistellata occurs in upper elevations, often in cloud forest), length of the pedicels ( L. purpusii often has flowering pedicels less than 20 mm long, while L. furcatistellata usually has pedicels greater than 20 mm long), and calyx appendage length ( L. furcatistellata has appendages on the flowering calyxes of 4 mm or less). The two species do not have overlapping distributions. Several specimens with dense, soft, very branched calyx trichomes, very short pedicels, and flowers in very tight groupings are included in this species circumscription, and they might prove to be a separate species.

Representative specimens examined.

Guatemala. Baja Verapaz: Purulhá, Biótopo del Quetzal, 15.21306, -90.22, 400 m, 18 Oct 1995, A. Cahuec s.n. (BIGU). Izabal: Montañas del Mico, 11 km W of Santo Tomás de Castillas, microwave tower, [15.6719, -88.6929], 940 m, 8 Sep 1988, W. Stevens 25496 (NY). Petén: 19 km N of Modesto Méndez, 200 m, 21 Jun 1971, W.E. Harmon 5855 (MO). Mexico. Chiapas: Mpio. Barriozábal, along road from Berriozábal to Las Maravillas, ca. 1.4 km S of the town of Efraín A. Gutiérrez, remnant of tall forest called La Mata Café, 16.8711, -93.2956, 1005 m, 12 Sep 2017, E. Dean 9527 (DAV). Oaxaca: Nueva Santa Flora, 17.9275, -96.4608, 700 m, 22 Dec 1992, G. Ibarra-Manríquez 3781 (XAL). Puebla: Mpio. Hueytamalco, 1 km hacia el Oeste de las instalaciones del Campo Experimental "Las Margaritas," Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP), 20.0044, -97.3167, 550 m, 19 Nov 2007, B. Gómez-Chagala 349 (IEB, MEXU). Veracruz: Rancho "El Milagro," 5 km en línea recta al sureste de la colonia Nueva Tabasquenia, 17.53, -94.0289, 115 m, 5 Aug 2002, E. López 192 (IEB, XAL).

Figures

Figure 84. Image of herbarium specimen of L. purpusii, Nee 18846 (MO). Specimen used with permission from the Missouri Botanical Garden (http: // www. tropicos. org).

Figure 85. Map of geographic distribution of L. purpusii based on herbarium specimen data.