Lycianthes stephanocalyx [(Brandegee) Bitter ]

Lycianthes stephanocalyx

Citation author:

(Brandegee) Bitter

Citation:

Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 18: 315. 1922.

Type:

Based on Solanum stephanocalyx Brandegee.

Last edited by:

Jennifer Poore

Written by:

Ellen Dean

Habit:

Perennial herb to climbing shrub, erect, often recumbent with age, to 2 (3) m tall, dying back to rhizomes. Stems green when young, compressed and ribbed when dried, becoming woody with age, glabrous to sparsely pubescent with small, white, uniseriate, multicellular, simple, curved, eglandular, appressed-ascending trichomes 0.1-0.6 mm long.

Sympodial structure:

Upper sympodial branching points mono- or dichasial. Upper sympodial stem units (1.5) 3.4-13 cm long, 1-3 mm in diameter, difoliate, the leaves geminate.

Leaves:

Leaves simple, usually paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 3.5-15 x 1.5-6.2 cm, the smaller ones with blades 0.7-6.5 (10.5) x 0.5- 3.1 (5) cm, the geminate leaf pairs usually similar in shape, the blades ovate (sometimes narrowly), elliptic, or obovate, chartaceous to thick chartaceous, glabrous to sparsely pubescent with trichomes like those of the stems 0.1-0.6 mm long; major veins 3-6 on each side of midvein; base truncate, cuneate, or attenuate, sometimes oblique; margin entire; apex acute to acuminate; petioles absent or (0.1) 0.2-0.9 (2) cm long.

Inflorescences:

Flowers solitary, axillary, the axes glabrous to sparsely pubescent with appressed-ascending trichomes to 0.25 mm long; peduncles absent; pedicels 12-45 mm and arching to deflexed in flower, to 53 mm long and deflexed in fruit.

Flowers:

Flowers 5-merous, all perfect, pendent. Calyx 1.5-3 (4) mm long, 3-4 mm in diameter, obconic to campanulate, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, the margin truncate, with 10 spreading to reflexed appendages 1.5-5 mm long emerging 0.5 mm below rim; fruiting calyx usually enlarged, widely campanulate to bowl-shaped, 1.5-4 mm long, 3-8 mm in diameter, the appendages 2-8 mm long, spreading. Corolla (0.5) 0.7-1.4 cm long, campanulate to reflexed in orientation, stellate in outline, divided 1/3 to 2/3 of the way to the base (lobes shallow on first day that the flower opens, becoming deeper each subsequent day that the flower opens), the lobes with interpetalar tissue, white to light purple, glabrous. Stamens equal, filaments 1-1.5 mm long, glabrous; anthers 4.5-7 mm long, lanceolate, connivant to connate at edges to adjacent anther, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, pores round, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits. Ovary glabrous; style (6) 8.5-9 mm, linear, straight, glabrous; stigma truncate.

Fruits:

Fruit a berry, 3-10 (17) mm long, 3-9 (12) mm in diameter, globose to ovoid, orange to red at maturity, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules.

Seeds:

Seeds 7-60 per fruit, (1.5) 2-3 mm long x 1.5-2 mm, flattened, depressed ovate, tan to orange, the surface reticulum with a tight serpentine pattern with shallow lumina

Chromosome number:

Not known.

Distribution:

Lycianthes stephanocalyx occurs in Mexico (Chiapas, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Veracruz), Guatemala (Huehuetenango, Izabal, Petén), Belize, and Honduras (and possibly further south in Central America), in tropical rainforest, tropical dry forest, tropical moist forest, and cloud forest, sometimes in coffee plantations or disturbed forest, near rivers or waterfalls, in gorges, or on the sides of canyons, 30–1050 m in elevation.

Phenology:

Flowering specimens have been collected May to September. Fruiting specimens have been collected September to December. It is possible this species flowers and fruits throughout the year in some locations. The author observed in the field in Mexico that the corollas are open in the very early morning and closed by late morning.

Commentary:

Lycianthes stephanocalyx is a rhizomatous herb (that can sometimes produce above-ground woody growth) with white stellate flowers and equal, connate anthers. Its closest relatives are not yet fully known but are probably other species with equal stamens and stellate corollas such as Lycianthes heteroclita (Sendtn.) Bitter and L. geminiflora (M.Martens & Galeotti) Bitter. It was placed by Georg Bitter in his series Pilifera (Bitter 1919), but it is probably not closely related to the other species he placed in the series, such as L. pilifera (Benth.) Bitter and L. quichensis (J.M.Coult. & Donn. Sm.) Bitter, both of which are shrubs occurring at relatively high elevations (Dean et al. 2020). Lycianthes stephanocalyx is sometimes confused with L. pilifera in herbaria, because both species have flowers with equal stamens, and L. pilifera sometimes has one-flowered inflorescences. Lycianthes stephanocalyx does overlap in distribution with L. pilifera and differs in having red fruit (rather than dark purple), connivant yellow anthers (rather than free purplish anthers), and small whitish curved trichomes (rather than straight brown pointed trichomes) (Dean et al. 2020).

References:

Bitter G. 1919. Die Gattung Lycianthes. Abhandlungen herausgegeban vom Naturwissenschaftlichen Verein zu Bremen 24 [preprint]: 292–520.

Dean, E. and M. Reyes. 2018. Lectotypification of names in the genus Lycianthes (Solanaceae). Phytotaxa 349: 39-46.

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. I

UCN [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]

Standley, P. 1940. Studies of American Plants – X. Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 22: 65-129.

Common names and uses:

Mexico. San Luis Potosi: tomatillo, arrete de la virgin, flor de mariposa (Standley, 1940); Veracruz: Masan ay (from herbarium specimen Marco Leonti 71).

Conservation status:

Lycianthes stephanocalyx is a widespread species ranging from western Mexico to Honduras, represented by 68 collections and occurring in six protected areas. The EOO is 361,720.394 km2, and the AOO is 260 km2. Based on the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Least Concern (LC).

Solanaceae Source

A global taxonomic resource for the nightshade family

Solanaceae

Lycianthes stephanocalyx (Brandegee) Bitter

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