Lycianthes arrazolensis
Not known.
Lycianthes arrazolensis occurs in Mexico (Chiapas, Jalisco, Guerrero, México, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca) to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, and Nicaragua in wet canyons and drainages, often in riparian forest or disturbed forest, in oak, oak/pine, and deciduous or semi-deciduous tropical forest (higher elevation populations are often in hardwood cloud forest; south of Guatemala, it has been collected in high-elevation, dwarf cloud forest and Cupressus forest) from 500–3000 m in elevation.
Bitter G. 1919. Die Gattung Lycianthes. Abhandlungen herausgegeban vom Naturwissenschaftlichen Verein zu Bremen 24 [preprint]: 292–520.
Dean, E., J. Poore, M. A. Anguiano-Constante, M. H. Nee, T. Starbuck, A. Rodrigues, and M. Conner. 2020. The genus Lycianthes (Solanaceae, Capsiceae) in Mexico and Guatemala. PhytoKeys 168: 1–333.
IUCN [Standards, Petitions Subcommittee] (2019) Guidelines for using the IUCN red list categories and criteria. version 12. Prepared by the Standards and Petitions Subcommittee in February 2019. http://jr.iucnredlist.org/documents/redlistGuidelines [accessed December 10, 2019]
Not known.
Lycianthes arrazolensis is a widespread species ranging from southern Mexico to Nicaragua, represented by 193 collections and occurring in eight protected areas. The EOO is 380,617.675 km2, and the AOO is 676 km2. Following the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Least Concern (LC).
This species is very similar to Lycianthes tricolor (Dun.) Bitter. It can be easily distinguished from L. tricolor by seed shape. The seeds of L. tricolor have a definite sharp notch that is usually deeper than 0.5 mm, whereas the seeds of L. arrazolensis lack this notch. In some Mexican L. arrazolensis populations in the states of Morelos and México, the seeds are shallowly indented on one side, but this indentation is less than 0.5 mm and usually less than 0.25 mm, and never sharply notched. Non-fruiting specimens can be challenging to identify. If a specimen was collected below 1700 m in elevation, it is most likely to be Lycianthes arrazolensis. In addition, the following non-seed characters can be helpful: the calyx rim of L. arrazolensis tends to be more prominent, often protruding beyond the appendage insertion by over 0.5 mm, while the calyx rim of L. tricolor is usually less than 0.5 mm; the appendages of L. arrazolensis tend to bend away from the rim, exposing the rim, while the appendages of L. tricolor are oriented closer to the rim and corolla, hiding the rim; the pores of the short stamens in L. arrazolensis usually face away from the style, while those of L. tricolor usually face toward the style; the pedicels of the oldest, largest flowers and the pedicels of the most mature fruits of L. arrazolensis are usually shorter than those of L. tricolor, although there is overlap in this characteristic; and the leaves of typical L. arrazolensis tend to have obvious geminate leaf pairs with elliptic to obovate laminas and leaf bases often attenuate into the petiole, while in L. tricolor the small geminate leaf often abscises early, and the laminas are more ovate with a less-attenuate leaf base.
There is a wide range of morphological variation within Lycianthes arrazolensis as circumscribed here, especially in leaf size, leaf shape, and density of pubescence. This is particularly true of populations in the state of Oaxaca and neighboring Guerrero where small-leaved forms with very dense pubescence as well as large-leaved forms with sparse pubescence are found. The populations with larger leaves and sparser pubescence are usually found below 1,500 m, while those with denser pubescence are usually found above 2,000 m. The degree of variation found in this species is worthy of more study.