Spachea A. Juss.

de Almeida, Rafael F., de Morais, Isa L., Alves-Silva, Thais, Antonio-Domingues, Higor & Pellegrini, Marco O. O., 2024, A new classification system and taxonomic synopsis for Malpighiaceae (Malpighiales, Rosids) based on molecular phylogenetics, morphology, palynology, and chemistry, PhytoKeys 242, pp. 69-138 : 69-138

1.3. 2. Spachea A. Juss. in Deless., Icon. Sel. Pl. 3: 19. 1838 [1837].

= Lophanthera A. Juss. , Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 2, 13: 328. 1840, syn nov. Type species: Lophanthera kunthiana A. Juss. , nom. superfl. [≡ Spachea longifolia (Kunth) R. F. Almeida & M. Pell. ].

= Spachea sect. Meckelia Mart. ex A. Juss. , Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 2, 13: 326. 1840 ≡ Meckelia (Mart. ex A. Juss.) Griseb. in Martius, Fl. Bras. 12 (1): 25. 1858. Type species: Spachea tricarpa A. Juss.

= Andersoniella C. Davis & Amorim , Harvard Pap. Bot. 25 (1): 51–56. 2020, nom. illeg., non Andersoniella K. J. F. Schmitz (1897) ≡ Andersoniodoxa C. Davis & Amorim , Phytotaxa 470 (1): 121–122. 2020, syn. nov. Type: Andersoniodoxa spruceana (Nied.) C. Davis & Amorim [≡ Lophanthera spruceana (Nied.) R. F. Almeida & M. Pell. ].

Type.

Spachea elegans (G. Mey.) A. Juss.

Notes.

Spachea was described by Jussieu (1837) to accommodate the species previously placed in Byrsonima with unisexual flowers. Lophanthera was initially described by Jussieu (1840) based on L. kunthiana A. Juss. , an illegitimate renaming of Galphimia longifolia Kunth. Grisebach (1858) transferred G. longifolia to Lophanthera and placed L. kunthiana in synonymy. Niedenzu (1914) described the second species of Lophanthera , L. spruceana Nied. , ca. 50 years after Grisebach. With the expansion of the Amazonian frontier in Brazil, Ducke described the third and fourth new species of the genus almost two decades later (1925, 1937). Finally, Davis et al. (2020 a, b) proposed Andersoniodoxa for the three species of Lophanthera with white to pink flowers and winged anthers. This was, in theory, strongly supported by molecular data. Nonetheless, the authors never made the sequences used in their article available in public repositories, and the analysis produced by us includes the type species of the three genera and recovers them as a strongly supported clade. Thus, we propose the recognition of a broadly circumscribed but morphologically cohesive Spachea , including all species of Lophanthera and Andersoniodoxa .

In the expanded circumscription presented here, Spachea includes 12 species (five threatened species; Suppl. material 1) of large trees distributed in flooded to non-flooded rainforests from the Amazon basin and Central America ( POWO 2024). The highly unusual structure of the fruits in S. longifolia and S. spruceana is worth mentioning, as it might be a water dispersal adaptation that enables buoyancy in the mericarp. For an identification key for Spachea , see Anderson (1981) for the Guyana Highland, Almeida et al. (2020) for Brazil, and Pool (in prep.) for Mesoamerica.