Rubiacearum Americanarum Magna Hama Pars VI: New Species of and Morphological Notes on Psychotria subg. Psychotria (Psychotrieae) from Mesoamerica and Western South America Charlotte M. Taylor Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, Missouri 63166 U.S.A.
[email protected] tsTRCT\(:r. Eight new Neotropical species of Psv-chotria subg. Plchotria are described and illus-trated here: IP c errocolortuadensis of western Paanamaandl PI matgtlglprnsis of northern Nicaragua haveboth previously been confused with P. syiricag<iStardlce and P/ chiriquini Slandley: P corncjoi ofwestern Ecuador has been ipreviously confused withlIP trirvialis Ruslby: P. jefenis of Costa Rica and Pan-arma and P. oro.ioides of Costa Rica have both Ibeenpreviously confused witlh P orosianu Standlev: P/lorelnciana of southern Mexico and Guatemala hasbeen variously confused with P. grandis Swartz. P.fltara (ersted ex Standle\, undl l coPstireniai (;rise-bach; adl P romoleroiuxiana of Amazonian Ecuadorand Peru and P/ saicciformis of lowland Colombia.Ecuador, and Peru have both previously been con-fused with P. borjensis Kunllh. The interpretationsof stipule mornphology and the arrangement of theflowers on the higher-order inflorescence axes astaxonomically iiformative characters have variedamong previous authors and are re-evaluated here. Key words: Neotropics, Psychotriu, Rubiaceae. Pschiolria I,. (Psychotrieae) in its broad sense comprises approximately I (10 species of shrubs and small trees (1or much less often herbs, climbers. or epiphytes) found throughout the tropics. This ge-nus is characterized by its usually 'woody habit: its relatively small. entomophilous. usually white ior cream-colored flowers that are typically distylous; its valvate corolla lobe aestivation: its inferior (vary' with usually two locules. each with one basal ovule;: andl its drupaceous fruits w ilh usually two planio-convex pyrenes. Recently, several studies employ-ing morphological and molecular characters have indicated that Neotropical PsIchotria as it is cur-rently circumscribed is systematically more coim-plex than has usually )been appreciated (a'llorl. 1996: Nepokroeff et al.. 1999: Andersson & I(Iova 1999: Piesschaert. 2001). These studlies have dis-tinguished within traditional sychotrio several lin-eages that are not all closely related. The speciesdiscussed and desc(ribed below, all belong to Psv-NO V(N 12: 120-132. 2002.chotril subg. Psychotrila all of these studies haveconsidered this a monophyletic group (Stevermark.1972; llanilton, 1989: 'Tylor, 1996; Nepokroeff etal., 1990: Andersson & lova. 1999: Iiesschaert.2001). Neotropical Psychotria subg. Psychotria is char-acterized l)y the distinctive color of its dried spec-imens, which usually are strongly tinged with brown, red-brown, red-gray, gray. or gray-green: its stipules of widely varied form but that are usually quickly caducous exposing a ring of well-developed infrastipular colleters (i.e.. glandular Irichomes). which are up to 3 mm long and typically persistent on the stem as a chestnutt-lrown fringe: its white flowers that are relatively short. with tubes 1-8 mmn long. andl pubescent in the throat and/or at the point of stamen insertion; and its orange to red fruits that bear two planoconvex, usually longitu-dinally ridged pyrenes. The pyrenes are character-ized bIy an alcohol-soluble reddish pigment and a lack of preformed germination slits, and both of these characters are shared with paleotropical spe-cies of Psychotria subg. Psychotria (Petit. 1964: Nepokroeff et al.. 1999: Piesschaert. 2001). In con-trast, theI other two large Neotropical groups within Psychotria s.l., section toopleura I -= Notopleura (Bentham & Hooker f.) Bremnekanmp: 'Taylor. 2001(b) and subgenus le'tcropxxchotria Steverinark, have dried specimens with a usually green or brown-green color, stipules of various fiorms but that are usually persistent arin without colleters or with these caducous or drving clear, fruits that may be orange or red at maturity but are more often white. blue. or purlle, and pylrenes two to five per fruit and widely varied in ftorm but lacking alcohol-sol-uble red pigments ain bearing preformred germni-nation slits. lelow I re-evaluate somre morpholoigical charr-alters that have and also have not been elmphasizedby previous authors to distinguish among speciesof Psyrchotrit subg. Psrcholria. andl describe sev-eral new species.
Localities extracted from OCR text.
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