Lycianthes surotatensis [A.H.Gentry ]

Lycianthes surotatensis

Citation author:

Gentry

Citation:

Brittonia 6 (3): 323. 1948

Type:

Mexico: State of Sinaloa, Sierra Surotato, Las Mesas, 15 Sep 1941, H. S. Gentry 6620 (holotype: MICH [1109850]; isotypes: ARIZ [ARIZ-BOT-0005037 acc. # 115451], DES [DES00041687], MEXU, MO [acc. # 1217396], GH [00934884], NY [00138708]).

Last edited by:

Jennifer Poore

Written by:

Ellen Dean

Habit:

Shrub, (0.6–) 1–3 m tall. Stems pale green (drying tan) with dark lenticular vertical striations when young, not much compressed when dried, becoming brown and woody with age, moderately pubescent with off-white to tan (purple), uniseriate, multicellular, simple, glandular and eglandular, spreading to appressed trichomes to 1.1 mm long.

Sympodial structure:

Upper sympodial branching points a mixture of dichasial and monochasial branching. Upper sympodial stem units 2.2–6.3 (–9.2) cm long, 0.8–2.1 mm in diameter, difoliate, the leaves often geminate.

Leaves:

Leaves simple, usually paired and unequal in size, the largest ones with blades 8.1–16.5 x 3.4–9.5 cm, the smaller ones with blades 1.6–7.8 x 0.6–4.2 cm, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades ovate to elliptic, thin chartaceous, moderately pubescent with spreading trichomes similar to those of the stem, 0.2–2.1 mm long; major veins 5-6 on either side of the midvein; base cuneate to attenuate, sometimes oblique; margin entire, usually irregularly undulate or irregularly remotely dentate; apex acuminate; petioles absent or 0.7–2.2 cm long.

Inflorescences:

Flowers in groups of (1–) 2–3 (–5), axillary, the axes moderately pubescent with spreading trichomes (0.2–) 0.5–1 (–1.5) mm long; peduncles absent; pedicels 9–33 mm long and erect in flower, 11–29 mm long and erect in fruit.

Flowers:

Flowers 5-merous, all perfect, oriented horizontally. Calyx 2–4 mm long, 2.5–6 mm in diameter, widely obconic to widely campanulate, densely puberulent with spreading trichomes 0.25–0.5 mm long, the margin truncate, with 10 spreading linear appendages 2–10 mm long, emerging ca. 0.5 mm below calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, widely bowl-shaped to rotate, 1–2(–4) mm long, (3–) 5–9 mm in diameter, the appendages 6–11 mm long (probably longer), 0.5–1 mm wide at the base, spreading. Corolla 0.9–1.8 cm long, rotate in orientation, mostly entire in outline (with shallow notches), with abundant interpetalar tissue, adaxially white, sometimes with three green spots near the insertion of the stamen filaments, green and puberulent with purple trichomes near the major veins abaxially. Stamens unequal, with four short filaments 1–2 mm long and one long filament 3.5–4.5 mm long, glabrous; anthers 3.5–5 mm long, elliptic, lanceolate, or oblong, free of one another, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, pores ovate, nearly terminal, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits. Ovary glabrous; style 7–10 mm, linear, slightly curved, glabrous; stigma capitate, decurrent down two sides, sometimes slightly bilobed.

Fruits:

Fruit a berry, 4–11 mm long, 4–12 mm in diameter, globose to depressed globose, red when mature, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules.

Seeds:

Seeds 40–137 per fruit, 1.75–2.25 x 1.5 mm, flattened, reniform to triangular, tan, surface with minute serpentine pattern.

Chromosome number:

Not known.

Distribution:

Lycianthes surotatensis occurs in Mexico (Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Quéretaro, Sinaloa, and Sonora) in broadleaved forest, oak forest, pine-oak forest, tropical dry forest, and riparian forest (including Platanus gallery forest), 670–2200 m in elevation

Phenology:

Flowering specimens have been collected from March to December; specimens with mature fruits have been collected February to December. The author observed in the field that the corollas are open in the morning and closed by afternoon.

Commentary:

Diagnostic features: Lycianthes surotatensis is very similar to Lycianthes tricolor (Dun.) Bitter in its pedicel length and corolla size. It differs from that species in having unnotched seeds and having glandular pubescence at least on the pedicels or calyx. In addition, the calyx length and calyx appendage length are usually longer in L. surotatensis. In the protologue for L. surotatensis, Gentry (1948) did not note the presence of glandular trichomes on the type specimen and concentrated instead on the dentate margins that are present on some of the leaves of the type specimen. However, the trichomes on the leaves, pedicels, and calyx of the type specimen are clearly glandular, and the character of the dentate leaf margins is not consistently present within the species and sometimes can occur in other species of series Tricolores (Dean et al. 2017, 2020).

References:

Dean, E., M. Reyes, R. Fauré, G. Walden, D. Brandon, D. Canington & D. McNair. 2017. Identification of the species of Lycianthes series Tricolores (Capsiceae, Solanaceae). Systematic Botany 42: 191–209.

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.

Gentry, H. S. 1948. Additions to the flora of Sinaloa and Nuevo Leon. Brittonia 6: 309–331.

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]

Common names and uses:

Not known.

Conservation status:

Lycianthes surotatensis is a locally common species with a disjunct distribution, ranging from central and western Mexico to southern Mexico, represented by 38 collections and occurring in two protected areas. The EOO is 497,854.619 km2, and the AOO is 132 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 surotatensis A.H.Gentry

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