| Abstract Detail
Systematics Section/ASPT MICHELANGELI, FABIAN A. [1], Ulloa Ulloa, Carmen [2], Sosa, Karla [3]. Quipuanthus, a New Genus of Melastomataceae from the Foothills of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru. During herbarium curation and specimen determination work we found a set of collections from Peru and Ecuador that clearly belonged to the same species. These collections had been preliminarily determined as Salpinga, Triolena, Monolena or Bertolonia, but never assigned to a described species in any of these genera. Close inspections of these specimens revealed a unique combination of characters for the family: a herbaceous rosette with apically dehiscent capsules, haplostemonous flowers, recurved styles, and inferior ovaries. The first two characters suggested an affinity with the tribe Bertolonieae, while the latter three with the tribe Cyphostyleae. Further studies on seed anatomy and stamen morphology al also suggested an affinity with Cyphostyleae, a finding corroborated by DNA sequence data. The unique character combination does not fit the current circumscription of Allomaieta, Alloneuron or Wurdastom, the genera currently in the Cyphostyleae, therefore we propose a new genus: Quipuanthus. The new genius is known from two populations close to 600 km apart on sandstone areas on the foothills of the Andes in Peru and Ecuador. The generic name is derived from the quechua word “quipu”, which refers to an Inca accounting system based on weaved strings with knots, and which loosely resembles the inflorescences of this new taxon. Even though this new genus and species is known from six different collections, all but one of these were collected in the last 15 years, underscoring the need for further exploration of the rapidly disappearing forests at mid and low elevations in the Andes.
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1 - The New York Botanical Garden, Institute Of Systematic Botany, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY, 10458, USA
2 - Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O.Box 299, St. Louis, MO, 63166-0299, USA
3 - The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY, 10458-5126, USA
Keywords:
Melastomataceae
Cyphostyleae
species description
taxonomy
Andes.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 14
Location: Cottonwoods North/Boise Centre
Date: Monday, July 28th, 2014
Time: 4:30 PM
Number: 14012
Abstract ID:111
Candidate for Awards:None |
