Capsicum caatingae Barboza & Agra, Syst. Bot. 36 (3): 769. 2011.

Barboza, Gloria E., Garcia, Carolina Carrizo, Bianchetti, Luciano de Bem, Romero, Maria V. & Scaldaferro, Marisel, 2022, Monograph of wild and cultivated chili peppers (Capsicum L., Solanaceae), PhytoKeys 200, pp. 1-423 : 1

4. Capsicum caatingae Barboza & Agra, Syst. Bot. 36 (3): 769. 2011.

Figs 33 , 34

Type.

Brazil. Bahía: Cachoeira, Estação da EMPASA, Vale dos Rios Paraguaçu e Jacuipe, 12°32'39"S, 39°05'00"W, 40-120 m elev., Jun 1980, P. do Cavalo et al. 162 (holotype: HUEFS [HUESF000001216, acc. # 00920]; isotypes: ALCB [ALCB000131, acc. # 07938], RB [RB00461411, acc. # 263323]) .

Description.

Small trees or erect shrubs 2-4 (-6) m tall, the main stem thick, 2.5-5 cm in diameter at base and with indefinite growth up to 5 m high, few branched, the branches slender or scandent. Young stems 3-4-angled, rigid, grey, glabrescent or, more rarely, sparsely pubescent with antrorse, simple, uniseriate, 3-7-celled, eglandular trichomes 0.2-0.9 mm long, sometimes furcate trichomes 0.7-0.9 mm long or minute, simple, glandular trichomes, ca. 0.1 mm long; nodes solid, green; bark of older stems grey or brown, glabrous; lenticels light brown. Sympodial units difoliate, the leaves geminate; leaf pair unequal in size and similar or dissimilar in shape. Leaves membranous or papery, slightly discolorous, glabrescent to moderately pubescent on both sides, with antrorse, 5-8-celled, eglandular trichomes 0.4-1.2 mm long, sometimes with branched trichomes 0.7-0.9 mm long and small glandular hairs (stalk short, 2-3-celled; head multicellular or unicellular), especially on veins abaxially; blades of major leaves 4-11.5 (-20) cm long, 1.5-2.4 (-8.5) cm wide, ovate to elliptic, the major veins 4-5 on each side of mid-vein, the base unequal and short-attenuate, the margins entire, the apex acute or somewhat acuminate; petioles (0.5-) 0.7-2.5 cm long, moderately pubescent adaxially; blades of minor leaves 1.5-2 cm long, 0.7-1.3 cm wide, ovate, the major veins 3-4 on each side of mid-vein, the base short-attenuate or truncate, the margins entire, the apex acute; petioles 0.2-0.5 cm long, moderately pubescent adaxially. Inflorescences axillary, congested, 5-13 (-20 or more) flowers per axil; flowering pedicels 7-21 (-28) mm long, terete, pendent, non-geniculate at anthesis, green with violet tones, glabrescent to moderately pubescent, the eglandular trichomes short, antrorse; pedicels scars conspicuous, somewhat corky. Buds globose to ellipsoid, cream, greenish-white or purple at the apex. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx 1.2-1.7 (-2) mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, cup-shaped, circular in outline, thin, weakly 5-nerved, green, greenish-purple or purple, sparsely pubescent with the same antrorse eglandular and glandular trichomes of the leaves, without appendages. Corolla 4.5-6 (-8) mm long, lilac or purple, greenish-yellow at the base outside, with different tones of purple and a narrow white marginal band in the lobes and greenish-yellow to yellowish-white centre within, stellate with narrow interpetalar membrane, lobed nearly halfway to the base, pubescent adaxially with a continuous ring of small glandular trichomes (stalk short, 1-2-celled; head globose, unicellular) in the throat and base of the lobes, glabrous abaxially, the tube 2.8-3.2 mm long, the lobes 2.9-3.5 mm long, 1.7-2.4 mm wide, broadly triangular, spreading, the margins involute and finely ciliate, the tip cucullate, papillate. Stamens five, equal; filaments (0.8-)1.1-1.75 mm long, greenish-white or white, inserted on the corolla ca. 2 mm from the base, with auricles fused to the corolla at the point of insertion; anthers 1.4-2.1 mm long, ellipsoid, light green or yellow, not connivent at anthesis. Gynoecium with ovary 1.1-1.4 in diameter, pale green, subglobose; ovules more than two per locule; nectary ca. 0.3-0.4 mm tall; styles homomorphic, (4.3-) 4.6-4.8 mm, exserted ca. 1 mm beyond the anthers, pale yellow or cream, clavate; stigma ca. 0.6 mm in diameter, globose or 0.15 mm long, 0.6 mm wide, discoid, light green. Berry (5-) 7-11 mm in diameter, globose, slightly flattened at the apex, green or yellowish-green when immature, red at maturity, deciduous, pungent, the pericarp thick, opaque, with giant cells (endocarp alveolate); stone cells absent; fruiting pedicels (15-) 20-25 mm long, pendent, terete, inflated, strongly widened distally and with a constriction at the junction with the calyx, green or purple; fruiting calyx 3-4 mm in diameter, persistent, not accrescent, discoid, 5 (-10)-nerved, the margin entire or sometimes easily torn, green or purple. Seeds (9-) 11-17 per fruit, 3.2-3.7 mm long, 2.2-2.8 mm wide, C-shaped, pale yellow, the seed coat reticulate and tuberculate at margins (SM), cerebelloid (SEM), the cells irregular in shape, the lateral walls wavy at margins and strongly sinuate in the central zone; embryo imbricate.

Distribution.

Capsicum caatingae is endemic to the north-eastern States of Brazil (Alagoas, Bahia, Pernambuco Sergipe and northern Minas Gerais States, Fig. 32 ). A beautiful specimen has been cultivated on the campus of the Federal University of Viçosa (Minas Gerais) for more than 30 years (seeds from Bahia).

Ecology.

Capsicum caatingae is a xerophytic species usually found in the margins of arid open Caatinga forests (Seasonal Deciduous and Seasonal Residual Forests) and in the anthropogenic Caatinga, more rarely in degraded humid forests (Floresta Estacional Decidual or Semidecidual). It is quite common in savannahs or amongst granitic and gneissic outcrops ( ‘inselbergs’), growing with thorny, deciduous arboreal and shrubby vegetation, between 100 and 950 m elevation.

Phenology.

Flowering from December to August; fruiting from February to October.

Chromosome number.

n = 12 ( Pozzobon and Schifino-Wittmann 2006, as C. parvifolium ); 2 n = 2x = 24 ( Moscone 1993; Pozzobon et al. 2006; Moscone et al. 2007; all count as C. parvifolium ).

Common names.

Brazil. Caraibera (Alagoas, Silva & Moura 1586), Murta (Sergipe, Silva 287), Pimenta brava ( Bahía, Pinto & Bautista 104), Semente-de-macaco (Alagoas, Oliveira 7).

Uses.

None recorded.

Preliminary conservation assessment.

EOO (270,442.695 km2); AOO (276 km2). The large extent of occurrence and the number of localities where C. caatingae was collected indicate Least Concern (LC) category. Given its highly specialised habitat limited to the Caatinga Biome, some subpopulations may be adversely affected because deforestation has intensified rapidly in recent years due to the consumption of native firewood for domestic and industrial purposes, over-grazing and changes in the ecosystem due to pasture and agricultural expansion (MMA-Brazil 2020).

Discussion.

Capsicum caatingae is a member of the Caatinga Clade ( Carrizo García et al. 2016) and is closely related to C. parvifolium , with which it is sympatric in Brazil; the two species have been confused in literature ( Moscone 1993; Hunziker 2001; Barboza and Bianchetti 2005; Pozzobon and Schifino-Wittmann 2006; Pozzobon et al. 2006; Moscone et al. 2007) and in herbaria (Barboza, pers. obs.). Barboza et al. (2011) clarified this confusion and re-circumscribed C. parvifolium .

Capsicum caatingae is an unusual species with a combination of uncommon features rarely found amongst its congeners: arborescent habit, with indefinite growth of the main stem reaching up to 6 m high (15 m fide Bautista & Pinto 1023), very congested inflorescences with up to 20 or more flowers per node, corolla with varied colours (lobes white edged, then deep purple or variations of purple colour, tube with greenish-yellow to yellowish-white centre) and terete and inflated fruiting pedicels with a strong annular constriction at the junction with the calyx base (Fig. 34 ), similar to C. chinense and a few other species ( C. minutiflorum , C. lanceolatum and C. regale ).

Capsicum caatingae differs from C. parvifolium in the absence of calyx appendages (five appendages in C. parvifolium ), the number of flowers per node (up to 20 or more flowers vs. not more than seven flowers in C. parvifolium ) and the fruit and seed colour (red berry with pale yellow seeds vs. greenish-golden yellow translucent berry with brownish-black seeds in C. parvifolium ). Capsicum caatingae is sometimes sympatric with C. longidentatum from which it differs by its arborescent growth (vs. shrubby growth), the indumentum mostly of simple trichomes (vs. indumentum of branched and dendritic trichomes), the lack of calyx appendages (vs. five, rarely six, calyx appendages), the mostly purple corolla (vs. corolla white with greenish-yellow spots) and the pungent red fruit with pale yellow seeds (vs. non-pungent probably yellowish-green fruit with brown to brownish-black seeds).

Specimens examined.

See Suppl. material 4: Appendix 4.

Figures

Figure 32. Distribution of C. benoistii, C. caatingae, C. caballeroi, C. campylopodium and C. cardenasii

Figure 33. Capsicum caatingae A flowering branch B branched trichome from leaf C flower D calyx E, F, G glandular trichomes of the calyx and leaf venation H eglandular trichome of the calyx I sector of opened corolla J eglandular trichome of the corolla lobes K gynoecium L ovary, in cross section M node of a fruiting branch N fruit, in cross section O seed P seed, in cross section Q embryo. From Hunziker 25233. Drawn by N. de Flury. Published in Barboza et al. (2011), reproduced with permission.

Figure 34. Capsicum caatingae A flowering branch B young fruiting branch C immature fruits (note the purple pedicels) D node of a fruiting branch, some fruits already fallen down. No specimen voucher. Photos taken in Federal University of Vicosa (Minas Gerais) by C. dal Zovo (Associazione PepperFriends).