cryptanthus coriaceus leme

8/6/2019 Cryptanthus coriaceus Leme

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A NEW SPECIES FROM ESPIRITO SANTO, BRAZILElton M.C. Leme

Rio de Janeiro, BrazilCryptanthus coriaceus Leme Sp. Nov.A C . maritimo L.B. Smith, cui affinis, foliis percoriaceis rigidisque. patentibusvel fere, 25-3 8mm latis, subtus peradpresse et minute albo-lepedotis, haud nervatis,ma rgine de nse spinosa, inflorescentia mu lti f lora, ramis ca.3 floribus, lobissepalorum angu stioribus d iffert.PLANT stemless, propagating by short axillary shoots. LEAVES 7-10 in asomewhat flat open round rosette, the basal ones a little reduced; LEAFSHEATHS broadly ovate, about 3.5cm long, 4cm wide at base, glabrous andlustrous above, densely white-lepidote and strongly corrugate beneath, verydensely spinulose; LEAF BLADES sublinear, acuminate-caudate, 25-40cmlong, 2.5-3.8cm wide, very rigid and coriaceous, succulent toward base butwithout a distinct median portion of succulence, inconspicuously narrowedat base, densely covered by strongly adpressed minute white scales beneath,glabrous above, greenish to wine colored, margins densely serrulate withspines 0.5-1.5mm in length, usually not undulate. INFLORESCENCE withprimary bracts like reduced leaves but with longer apices, centrally with about12 staminate flowers, each one of the about 6 outer fascicles with 3 perfectflowers; FLORAL BRACTS sublanceolate, acute, and apiculate, about 18mmlong, 5mm wide, about equaling the length of the ovary or slightly exceedingit, entire or remotely spinulose at apex, lepidote near apex, sharply carinate;FLOWERS sessile, 30-45mm long; SEPALS about 15mm long, greenish,strongly carinate (mainly the posterior ones), connate for 10mm, the free lobessubsymmetric, ovate, acuminate, about 5mm long and 3mm wide, entire,white-lepidote toward apex; PETALS 25-30mm long, 5mm wide, white orslightly greenish at apex, exceeding the stamen but recurved at anthesis and14 ryptanthus Society Journal, Vol. VI No. 1


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exposing them, rounded, connate for 5-7mm, bearing 2 small callouses about10mm abo ve the base; FILAM ENT S the epipetalous ones adna te to the petalsfor 10mm and the episepalous for 5-7mm; ANTHERS about 2mm long, fixednear the middle, base and apex obtuse; OVARY about 10mm long, trigonous,white, white-lepidote in life with fimbriate scales; EPIGYNOUS TUBE veryshallow; PLACENTAE apical; OVULES few, obtuse.TYPE: Brazil, Espirito Santo State, County of Serra, about 6km from theCity of Serra along Br 101 road. Leg. Elton M.C. Leme 1114, RobertoMenesca l, and R enato Bello, M ay 15, 1987. Flowered in cultivation M ay-June1990. Holotype HB.

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Cryptanthus coriaceus LemeA) outer fascicle; B) floral bract; C) sepals; D) cross-section of ovary; E) petals;F) cross-section of leaf-blade.Cryptanthus coriaceus was collected on a hill of about 200 meters high, situatedabout 30km from the City of Vitoria and 15km from the Atlantic Ocean, wherea somewhat dry shruby vegetation predominates. It was growing terrestriallyunder the partial protection of the shade of trees, in very small spreadingCryptanthus Society Journal, Vol. VI No. 1 15


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populations. At first glance its very rigid leatherlike spreading leaves calledour a ttention, making it different from all the previously known species.Although it has a very unusual general appearance, this new species is veryclosely related to C. maritimus L.B. Smith; which is known only from thetype collection (Penha H ill, Vila V elha near Vitoria, Espirito Santo State 2 ) .W e were very lucky to ha ve in hand for compara tive studies, 10 livingspecimens of C. maritimus kindly collected by Euclidio Colnago who wasalready honored with C. colnagoi3at the type locality of the species. Withsuch material, which presented an important pattern of variation of leaf shapeas reported by H arry Luther', it was possible to establish the main differencesbetween C. maritimus and our proposed new species. On the other hand, wealso used for compa rison the phototype of C . maritimus, as well as some livingspecimens we collected near Aracruz, Espirito Santo State (E. Leme no. 1117),and provisionally identified as C. maritimus in spite of the discrepancy ofsome of its characteristics when compared with the typical C. ma ritimus.So, C. coriaceus differs from C. maritimus by its very rigid, leatherlike,spreading leaves 25-38mm wide, (which a re not nervate beneath but denselycovered by smaller strongly adpressed white scales;) by densely serrulate leafmargins; by the many-flowered inflorescence with outer fascicles having 3flowers; and by the nar rower lobes of the sepals.Fina lly, it is importan t to stress here that C. incrassatus L.B. Smiths wasa ppar ently a lso collected by M.B. Foster at the same type place of C .maritimus on July 15, 1939 ("on road to Monastery at Vitoria, Espirito Santo,Brazil" ). In spite of the lack of correspondence at the time and some collectionnumbers of Foster (for exa mple: C . maritimus, coll. no. 179, July 11, 1939;N eoregelia zonata, coll. no. 197, July 11, 1939; C. incrassatus, coll. no. 172,July 15, 1939), there is a good possibility that both mentioned species canbe found growing together in the same neighborhood. Thus, from the originaldescriptions we can conclude that C . incrassatus differs from C . maritimusonly by the shorter dimorphic leaf-blades.The phototype of C maritimus revea ls a very well rooted specimen withlonger leaves, while the one of C. incrassatus presents a very poorly rootedspecimen w hich possibly flowered w hen it was still attached to the oldermother plant as often occurs with some Cryptanthus. On the basis of therate of leaf variation of C. maritimus reported by Luther a nd confirmed hereusing fresh collected ma terial, and considering the data m entioned above,there is urgent need of a specific field work in order to verify whether ornot C . incrassatus is validly distinct when compa red to C. ma ritimus.REFERENCES:1 Arq.Bot.S.Paulo 1(5):106,p1.105.1943. TheCrypt.Soc.Jour. 3(2):14.1988.2 TheCrypt.Soc.jour. 3(2):14-16.1988.' Arq.Bot S.Paulo 2(5):119,p1.49.1950.' Jour.ofTheBrom.Soc. 39(6):258-260.1989.16ryptanthus Society Journal, Vol. VI No. 1

cryptanthus coriaceus leme

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