Byttneria cristobaliana (Malvaceae: Byttnerioideae), a New Species from Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

Scandent shrub. Stems terete, armed with sharp, recurved prickles; glandular, with minute reddish-brown glands. Young stems with a line of appressed, curved acicular hairs; older stems glabrate. Leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 7.5 14 x 0.6 1.6 cm, apex long acuminate, apiculate, margin entire, strongly revolute, base oblique, glabrate above and below except for scattered simple hairs along the midrib and minute reddish-brown glands throughout; green above and below with an area of whitish maculation surrounding the midvein above in older leaves; midvein conspicuous, prominently raised above and below; secondary veins faint but clearly diverging at right angles from the midvein; midvein below with an inconspicuous, multiaperturate foliar nectary, centred c. 1.5 mm from the leaf base; foliar nectaries c. 1 1.5 mm long; petiole 1 2 mm long, with a line of appressed, curved acicular hairs above; stipules falcate, c. 1 mm long, glabrate, caducous. Infloresence (1 -) 3flowered, axillary cymes; peduncles 1.5 2 mm long, glabrate; bracteoles subtending pedicels falcate, c. 0.25 mm long; pedicels 2 4 mm long, glabrate, articulated near the middle. Calyx 5-lobed, lobes narrowly triangular to triangular, c. 3 x 1 1.5 mm, united c. 1 mm at the base, abaxial surface with scattered simple acicular hairs, adaxial surface tomentose. Petals 5, unguiculate, cucullate, ligulate; claw ribbon-like, c. 1 x c. 0.25 mm, curved away from the axis, unpigmented, glabrous, apical portion forming a hood with 2 lateral wings (one each on either side of the lamina), c. 0.5 mm long, rounded distally, glabrous, hood resting on the upper margin of the staminal tube; abaxial portion of hood glabrous; lamina longspathulate, somewhat flattened (an artifact of drying?), c. 2 x c. 0.5 mm, pubescent its entire length with simple, pigmented hairs; wings, hood, and lamina wine-red (fidej ardim et al. 637), drying black. Staminal column c. 1 mm tall, glabrous, wine-