Otoba vespertilio Santamaría & Jiménez (2019: 371)

Jaramillo-Vivanco, Tatiana S. & Balslev, Henrik, 2020, Revision of Otoba (Myristicaceae), Phytotaxa 441 (2), pp. 143-175 : 169-170

Otoba vespertilio Santamaría & Jiménez (2019: 371) . ( Fig. 13 )

Type:— COSTA RICA. Limón: Cantón de Talamanca: Refugio de Vida Silvestre Gandoca-Manzanillo, Caribe sur, [ASACODE] San Miguel, de la estación 1 km al sur, 9°37′00”N, 82°41′00”W, 50–100 m, Apr 1997, Aguilar et al. 5024, staminate (holotype: MO nv).

Tree to 25 m tall; branchlets terete, usually ferruginous, pubescent, glabrescent; petiole 0.80–2.00 × 0.06–0.10 mm, not winged; lamina 5.3–12.5 × 2.0–3.5(−4.8) cm, usually ferruginous when dry, glabrescent below; secondary veins 6–8 per side; intramarginal veins absent. Staminate inflorescence with pedicel 2.0– 3.6 mm long; partial inflorescences 1-3, pubescent, ca. 20-flowered; umbelliform parts alternate; 3–5-flowered; bracteoles absent. Staminate flowers with pedicel 3 mm long; perianth 2–3 mm long, inner surface smooth; androecium 1–2 mm long; filament column bottle-shaped, fused; anthers globose to sub-globose, apex obtuse, basally attached to the filaments apex, ca. 0.2–0.3 mm long. Pistillate inflorescence similar to staminate; bracteoles not seen. Pistillate flowers similar to staminate, but with perianth 2–3 mm long; gynoecium ca. 1.8 × 0.7 mm; ovary glabrous, ovate 1.8 × 0.7 mm, short-stalked; stigma subsessile, bilobed, stigmatic lobes ca. 0.2 mm long. Infructescence with 1–2 fruits. Fruit 2.2–2.7 × 1.6–1.7 cm, subglobose, apex acute to obtuse; pericarp 1.3–1.8 mm thick; aril orange, reddish when dry, waxy; seed 1.8–1.9 × ca. 1.7 cm, apical prickle slightly present.

Representative specimens examined:— COSTA RICA. Limón: Fila Carbón, ca. 6 km Oeste de Home Creek, 9°40′10”N, 82°50′35”W, 1991, Hammel et al. 18120 ( CR, MEXU, MO, USJ nv). PANAMA. Bocas del Toro: East 1.5 miles off road from divide to Chiriquí Grande, 1984, D’Arcy 16381 ( INPA, MO nv).

Distribution:— A narrow endemic on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and Panamá ( Fig. 15), where it has been reported at 0– 800 m.

Conservation status:— Not evaluated.

Notes:— All morphological characteristics and distribution data taken from Santamaría-Aguilar et al. (2019). Otoba vespertilio shares its range with O. acuminata . Specimens of O. vespertilio had been included in O. acuminata before O. vespertilio was described as new ( Santamaría-Aguilar et al. 2019), but they differ in several morphological characteristics like lamina colour below (whitish, somewhat pubescent, in O. acuminata vs. ferruginous, glabrescent, in O. vespertilio ), indument of the gynoecium (pubescent in O. acuminata vs. glabrous in O. vespertilio ) and the colour of the aril (white-yellow in O. acuminata vs. orange-reddish in O. vespertilio ).

Figures

FIGURE 13. Vegetative and reproductive characters of Otoba parvifolia and O. vespertilio. Otoba parvifolia. A. Habit. B. Fruiting shoot; notice the lamina whitish below. C. Fertile pistillate shoot. D. Pistillate flowers. Otoba vespertilio. E. Sterile shoot. F. Pistillate flowers. G. Fruiting shoot. Photographs: A, Rodolfo Vásquez (Perú, Pasco), voucher Vásquez 32641, B–D, Rodolfo Vásquez (Peru, Pasco), voucher Vásquez 39990. E: Esteban Jiménez (Costa Rica, Limón), voucher specimen Jiménez 4291. F, G: Esteban Jiménez (Costa Rica, Limón), voucher specimen Jiménez 4346.