Lycianthes caeciliae Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Verein Bremen 24 [preprint]: 429. 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

8 Lycianthes caeciliae Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Verein Bremen 24 [preprint]: 429. 1919 Fig. 20

Type.

Mexico. Veracruz: District Cordoba, Cerro de Chocomán, 12 May 1907, C. Seler & E. Seler 5168 (holotype: B [not seen, cited by Bitter (1919), probably destroyed]; isotype: GH [00936203]).

Description.

Shrub to small tree, 1.5-3 m tall. Indument of off-white to light brown, uniseriate, multicellular, simple (very rarely furcate), acute, eglandular, appressed to spreading trichomes 0.25-1 mm long, these usually remaining cylindrical and acute upon drying. Stems green to purple-green when young, glabrous to moderately pubescent, partly to fully compressed upon drying in a plant press, brown and woody with age; upper sympodial branching points mostly monochasial with a few dichasial branching points. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia usually paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 4-16 × 1-5 cm, elliptic to obovate, the smaller ones with blades 1-6 × 0.5-3 cm, ovate, lanceolate, or obovate, the blades of both the large and small leaves chartaceous to thick chartaceous, glabrous to moderately pubescent, denser on the veins, the base cuneate, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, undulate, the apex acute to acuminate, the petiole to 0.8 cm long, sometimes absent, 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 nodding; peduncles absent; pedicels 15-30 mm long, arching to deflexed in flower, to 42 mm long, arching to deflexed in fruit, glabrous to moderately pubescent; calyx 3-3.5 mm long, 4-4.5 mm in diameter, campanulate, green, sometimes with a purple hue, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, the margin truncate, with 10 spreading, linear-subulate appendages 2-5 mm long emerging 0.5-1 mm below the prominent, undulating calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, widely bowl-shaped, 2-2.5 mm long, 6-8 mm in diameter, the appendages widening but not significantly elongating, to 7 mm long; corolla 0.7-1.6 cm long, campanulate to reflexed in orientation, stellate in outline, divided 1/3-2/3 of the way to the base, with interpetalar tissue, purple adaxially with green at the base of each lobe near the stamen insertion, purple abaxially, sometimes with a single white line down the middle, nearly glabrous; stamens equal, straight, the filaments 0.5-2 mm long glabrous, the anthers 4-4.5 mm long, ovate to lanceolate, free of one another, purple, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores ovate, dehiscing toward the style, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 5-7.5 mm long, linear, glabrous; stigma capitate to oblong. Fruit a berry, 7-13 mm long, 6-13 mm in diameter, globose to ovoid, dark purple at maturity, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 10-50 per fruit, 2.5-3 × 3-4 mm, compressed but not flat, depressed ovate or reniform (with small notch) in outline, brown, the surface reticulum with a tight, serpentine pattern with deep luminae, with fibrils protruding from the cell walls.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Mexico (Veracruz), on the eastern slopes of two volcanos, Cofre de Perote and Citlaltépetl [Orizaba], in cloud forest and oak forest, 1750-2250 m in elevation (Fig. 21 ).

Common names and uses.

None known.

Phenology.

Specimens have been collected with both flowers and mature fruits April to September. In the field, the first author observed that most of the corollas of this species were closed by 1 pm, but some of the corollas still remained open at that time. Corollas opening for the first time (the smallest on the plant) are a deep purple, while older, larger flowers are a pale purple. The green ring at the base of the corolla is more prominent in older flowers.

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes caeciliae is a Mexican species of vulnerable cloud forest habitat in the state of Veracruz that is known from only four locations, with only one in a protected area (La Cortadura Ecological Reserve). The EOO is 149.767 km2, and the AOO is 12 km2. Following the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Endangered (EN).

Discussion.

As detailed elsewhere ( Dean et al. 2019b), Lycianthes caeciliae is a species that was poorly collected until the 21st century. Other than the type collection, it was just collected one other time in the 20th century by Matuda. It was then collected numerous times at La Cortadura on the slopes of Cofre de Perote by Gonzalo Castillo-Campos between 2005 and 2007. The species is most abundant in original oak cloud forest where it is in flower and fruit; although observed by the first author in secondary forest of Alnus or Liquidambar at lower elevations in the area of La Cortadura, the plants are small and often sterile. Lycianthes caeciliae is closely related to L. pilifera , a Oaxacan cloud forest endemic, with which it shares simple, straight, spreading trichomes that do not collapse upon drying, corollas with purple and green coloration, purple anthers, purple coloration in the calyx, and dark purple fruit with large brown seeds. Lycianthes caeciliae could be confused with L. stephanocalyx , a rhizomatous herb to subshrub which also occurs in Veracruz, but at lower elevations. Lycianthes stephanocalyx differs from L. caeciliae in having small incurved trichomes, yellow connivent anthers, red fruits, and tan seeds ( Dean et al. 2019b).

Representative specimen examined.

Mexico. Veracruz: Mpio. Coatepec, La Cortadura, falda este del Cofre de Perote, 19.4900, -97.0427, 1800 m, 8 May 2019, E. Dean 10030 (DAV230605).

Figures

Figure 20. Image of herbarium specimen of L. caeciliae, Dean 10030 (DAV). Image used with permission of the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity.

Figure 21. Map of geographic distribution of L. caeciliae based on herbarium specimen data.