Six New Species of Neurolepis (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Bambuseae) from Ecuador and Peru Lynn G. Clark Department of Botany, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, U.S.A.ABSTRACT. Six new species, Neurolepis asymme-trica, N. fimbriligulata, N. laegaardii, N. nana, N.rigida, and N. villosa, are described and illustrated.Two subspecies are recognized within N. fimbrili-gulata: N. fimbriligulata subsp. peruviana andsubsp. fimbriligulata. All taxa except for N. fimbri-ligulata subsp. peruviana are endemic to Ecuador;N. fimbriligulata subsp. peruviana is known onlyfrom Peru. These species were all formerly includ-ed within a broadly defined N. aristata (Munro) Pil-ger because of the presence of an awn on glumesI and II. A table comparing the six new taxa inEcuador and N. aristata is provided. Revision of the high Andean bamboo genus Neu-rolepis Meissner for the Flora of Ecuador has re-vealed the existence of six new species, which are here described and illustrated. All six, as well as N. acuminatissima (Munro) Pilger, N. stuebelii (Pil-ger) Pilger, and N. weberbaueri Pilger, were previ-ously included within a very broadly circumscribed N. aristata (Munro) Pilger based on the presence of a well-developed awn on glumes I and II (Sod-erstrom, 1969), but discontinuities in variation and distribution among these six taxa are sufficient to warrant recognition at the species level. Neurolepis acuminatissima, N. stuebelii, and N. weberbaueri are now recognized as species distinct from N. ar-istata (Clark, unpublished data). A total of 12 de-scribed species of Neurolepis, including the six de-scribed herein and N. stuebelii and N. weberbaueri, is now known from Ecuador. With the exception of N. fimbriligulata and N. laegaardii, the other spe-cies are each restricted to one cordillera or the oth-er in Ecuador. Among the new taxa, N. asymmetri-ca, N. nana, and N. rigida occur in the Eastern Cordillera, whereas N. villosa is found only in the Western Cordillera. Neurolepis fimbriligulata is principally from the Western Cordillera, with one population on the western slope of the Eastern Cor-dillera, and conversely, N. laegaardii is primarily from the Eastern Cordillera, with one population in the Western Cordillera. The lack of vegetative branching of the aerialculms is characteristic of Neurolepis (McClure,1973; Davidse & Clark, 1996). Rhizome bracts in-tergrade into culm leaves acropetally along eachculm, making it difficult to distinguish between thetwo. Culm leaves usually exhibit blades, but suc-cessive culm leaves each produce a longer blade,which adds to the difficulty of characterizing theculm leaves; therefore descriptions of the culmleaves, usually an important and even diagnosticsource of characters in other bamboo genera, arebrief. The transition from culm leaves to foliageleaves is usually rather abrupt in Neurolepis. Fo-liage leaf morphology is very useful in distinguish-ing among species of Neurolepis. The juncture ofthe sheath and blade, including the sheath summit,the inner ligule, and the blade base, is critical forspecies identification, and should always be col-lected. Because the development of the pseudope-tiole is so variable among the species of Neurolepis,the length of the pseudopetiole is excluded fromthe length of the blade in the descriptions. Terminology to describe the inflorescences fol-lows Troll (1964), Soderstrom and Londoflo (1988), and Weberling (1992). The synflorescence was measured from the lowermost primary paracladium (or paracladia) to the apex of the main axis (rachis); a measurement for the peduncle is given separately, where data are available. Variation in the devel-opment of spikelets, particularly the awns of glumes I and II, is correlated with position in the synflo-rescence. Spikelets terminating the main axis and the primary and secondary paracladia are often slightly larger and exhibit the greatest awn devel-opment, whereas those spikelets terminating terti-ary or higher order paracladia are often smaller and show markedly less awn development. Measure-ments were taken from the most and least devel-oped functional spikelets to provide a full range of variation. Measurements for the descriptions and compar-isons in Table 1 were taken from virtually all spec-imens cited in this paper, including holo-and is-otypes. When possible, two leaves were measuredper specimen, but frequently only one completeleaf was available. Usually two spikelets per flow-ering specimen were measured.NovoN 6: 335-350. 1996.
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