A New Species of Deprea (Solanaceae) from Venezuela

Abstract

The range of the genus Deprea is discussed, and a new species, Deprea hirtifora, from Venezuela, is described and illustrated. An overlooked, second species, Deprea granulosa, is also presented and illustrated. Deprea Rafinesque is a small neotropical genus of Solanaceae. Its separation from Physalis was long ignored after first publication (Rafinesque, 1838), but the genus was reinstated by D'Arcy (1973), who also lectotypified it by D. orinocensis (Humboldt & Bonpland) Rafinesque. This view has been accepted by Hunziker (1977) and Barbosa & Hunziker (1989). The genus now includes eight species: the type species, D. xalapensis (Humboldt & Bonpland) Rafinesque, D. sylvarum (Standley & Morton) Hunziker, D. glabra (Standley) Hunziker, D. cardenasiana Hunziker, D. granulosa (Miers) Barbosa & Hunziker, Deprea subtriflora (Miers) D'Arcy, and the species described here. D'Arcy (1979, 1986, 1993) has indicated that although the corolla is more deeply divided in Physalis subtrifora (the type species of Larnax Miers) than in other species now placed in Deprea, this species is actually a member of Deprea and hence Deprea and Larnax are congeneric. A difficulty in assessing the geographic range of Deprea is in the provenance of the specimens on which the original two species were described. In his description of Deprea, Rafinesque included Physalis xalapensis Kunth and Physalis orinocensis Kunth, both of which are typified by quite similar specimens in Paris (P). Subsequently, no species of Deprea has been found in the region around Xalapa, Mexico (Nee, 1986), the ostensible source of Physalis xalapensis, nor was any specimen of Deprea encountered from the region of the Orinoco, Venezuela, by D'Arcy, Benitez, and Nee, who have recently completed a treatment of the Solanaceae for the Flora of the Guayana Highlands. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the Kunth material actually came from somewhere other than Mexico or Venezuela. Plants similar to the material at Paris used by Kunth are commonly found n the uplands of Costa Rica and western Panama (D'Arcy, 1973), and also in Colombia. After excluding Mexico and the Orinoco lowlands s part of the range of Deprea, the genus appears to range from Costa Rica to Colombia (D. orininocensis, D. glabra, D. granulosa), Ecuador (D. glabra), Peru (D. subtrifora), and Bolivia (D. cardenasiana). The species described here, D. hirtiflora, extends the range of the genus eastward into Trujillo, Venezuela, but not as far as the Orinoco basin. Deprea hirtiflora Axelius & D'Arcy, sp. nov. TYPE: Venezuela. Trujillo: Mpio. de Bocano, camino al Cerro Guaramacal via la laguna de Los Cedros, cloud forest, 21 Mar. 1981, B. Stergios 2590 (holotype, MO). Figure 1A-C. Species Depreae orinicensi (Kunth) Rafinesque affinis, a qua corolla azurea, extus dense villosa differt. Differt a D. granulosa (Miers) Barbosa & Hunziker colore corollae, pubescentia corollae densiore, tubo corollae breviore et antheris longioribus. Branched, unarmed herb or shrub to 1.2 m tall, twigs terete, pubescent overall with conspicuous, weak, whitish 5-7-celled hairs that dry flattened, ribbonlike. Leaves subentire, ovate; blade mostly 35 x 1-3 cm wide, apically acuminate, basally obtuse, cuneate or acuminate, veins arcuate-ascending, ca. 5 on each side, not forming an evident submarginal vein, both sides evenly puberulent, slightly denser on the main veins beneath; petioles slender, 3-10 mm long. Inflorescences (1-3)-flowered fascicles terminal on peduncles in the leaf axils or branch forks, peduncle obsolete, pedicels slender, ca. 6 mm, puberulent. Flowers with fusiform buds; calyx pilose with elongate hairs, cupular, 5-lobate, lobed '4-way down, the lobes small and narrowly triangular, ca. 0.5 mm long; corolla blue, tubularinfundibular, lobed ca. '/-way down, the lobes ca. 3 mm long, narrowly triangular, ciliolate, the tube ca. 5 mm long, slightly expanding upward, ca. 3 mm wide at the widest, villous outside, glabrous within; NOVON 3: 11-13. 1993. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.49 on Mon, 29 Aug 2016 05:11:48 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms