Volume 5 NOVONNumber 4 MISSOURI1995 DEC27 1995 GARDEN Llbnrr( A New Blakea (Melastomataceae: Blakeeae) from Tapantf National Park, Costa Rica Frank Almeda Department of Botany, California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California 94118-4599, U.S.A. Gina Umafia Dodero Herbario Nacional de Costa Rica, Museo Nacional, Apartado 749-1000, San Jose, Costa RicaABSTRACT. Blakea tapantiana, a new Costa Ricanendemic, is described, illustrated, and comparedwith B. grandflora, an allopatric Costa Rican en-demic that occurs at higher elevations and flowerssporadically throughout the year. The new speciesis distinguished by its short-pedicellate flowers,caudate-acuminate outer floral bracts, white petals,and unappendaged anther thecae. Blakea, a neotropical genus with over 100 de-scribed species, continues to yield new Mesoamer-ican taxa of local distribution (Umaia & Almeda, 1991). Unlike many species of Blakea, which tend to flower sporadically throughout the year, the spe-cies proposed here appears to flower for a short period during the rainy season followed by a rather lengthy period of fruit maturation. This probably accounts, in part, for the paucity of flowering and mature fruiting specimens in herbaria and empha-sizes the need for repeated visits to mid-elevation montane forests in Costa Rica and elsewhere in tropical America.Blakea tapantiana Umana & Almeda, sp. nov. TYPE: Costa Rica. Cartago: Parque Nacional Tapantf, Sendero Oropendola, 9�48'18"N, 83�57'12"W, 1200 m, 3 Sep. 1992 (fl), Umarna et al. 497 (holotype, CR; isotypes, CAS, COL, F, K, MEXU, MO, US, USJ, WIS). Figure 1. Frutex epiphyticus vel terrestris. Ramuli primum sub-quadrangulati demum teretes sicut foliorum subtus venae primariae et secundariae pedicelli bracteaeque primum densiuscule furfuracei, demum glabrescentes. Lamina el-liptica vel oblongo-elliptica, apice caudato-acuminato. Flores 6-meri in quoque nodo superiore 1-3, pedicellis 0.6-1 cm longis; bracteae exteriores ca. 3-6 mm coalitae apice hebeti-acuminato. Antherae 4.5-5 X 1-1.5 mm in-ter se non cohaerentes; connectivum dorsaliter paulo ele-vatum ecalcaratum. Terrestrial or epiphytic shrubs 2-6 m tall. Upper branchlets rounded-quadrate to somewhat sulcate, becoming rounded and glabrous with age. Vegeta-tive buds, young branchlets, young petioles, pri-mary and secondary abaxial leaf veins, and imma-ture inner and outer floral bracts densely to moderately covered with dendritic and scurfy hairs. Mature leaves of a pair equal to somewhat unequal in size, essentially glabrous adaxially or sparingly beset with a mixture of paleaceous, dendritic, and/ or conic hairs along the elevated veins; petioles 1.5-3.5 cm long; blades coriaceous, 8.3-17 cm long and 4.1-7.6 em wide, elliptic to oblong-ellip-tic, rarely elliptic-obovate, apex acuminate to cau-date-acuminate, base acute varying to obtuse, mar-gin denticulate to subentire, 5-nerved or 5-plinerved with the innermost pair of primary veins diverging from the median vein 3-6 mmabove the blade base, the striolate transverse sec-ondary veins spaced 1.5-3 mm apart at the widest NovoN 5: 305-308. 1995.
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