Four new species of Capsicum (Solanaceae) from the tropical Andes and an update on the phylogeny of the genus.

Gloria E Barboza,Ximena Reyes,Carolina Carrizo García,Marisel Scaldaferro,Segundo Leiva González,William Oki Wong

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0209792

Abstract

Four new species of Capsicum (Capsiceae, Solanaceae) from Andean tropical forests in South America are described. Capsicum benoistii Hunz. ex Barboza sp. nov. (incertae sedis) is endemic to a restricted area in south-central Ecuador and is most similar to the more widespread C. geminifolium (Dammer) Hunz. (Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru). Capsicum piuranum Barboza & S. Leiva sp. nov. (Andean clade) is found in northern Peru (Department Piura) and is morphologically most similar to C. caballeroi M. Nee of the Bolivian yungas (Departments Santa Cruz and Cochabamba) but closely related to C. geminifolium and C. lycianthoides Bitter. Capsicum longifolium Barboza & S. Leiva sp. nov. (Andean clade) occurs from northern Peru (Departments Amazonas, Cajamarca, and Piura) to southern Ecuador (Province Zamora-Chinchipe), and is morphologically most similar to C. dimorphum (Miers) Kuntze (Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru). Capsicum neei Barboza & X. Reyes sp. nov. (Bolivian clade) is endemic to southeastern Bolivia (Departments Chuquisaca and Santa Cruz) in the Boliviano-Tucumano Forest, is morphologically most similar to another Bolivian endemic species C. minutiflorum Rusby (Hunz.), and is closely related to C. caballeroi. Complete descriptions, illustrations, distributions and conservation assessments of all new species are given. Chromosome numbers for C. piuranum and C. longifolium are also provided. Three of the new species were included in a new phylogenetic analysis for Capsicum; their positions were strongly resolved within clades previously recognized in the genus.

Highlights

Capsicum L. (Capsiceae, Solanaceae) comprises ca. 35 species [1] native to tropical and temperate Central and South America, Mexico and the West Indies
The permit for collecting plant material in Ecuador was provided by Ministerio del Ambiente (MAE-Loja and MAE-Zamora-Chinchipe); in Bolivia and Peru collections were made under agreements with the Herbario Nacional de Bolivia, Universidad Mayor de San Andres (LPB), and Museo de Historia Natural (HAO), Universidad Privada A
Following the IUCN Criteria (IUCN 2017), we suggest C. longifolium deserves a status of Endangered

Summary

Introduction

Capsicum L. (Capsiceae, Solanaceae) comprises ca. 35 species [1] native to tropical and temperate Central and South America, Mexico and the West Indies. As some data are still unknown (e.g. corolla color, fruit and seed characters, and chromosome number) for this species and freshly collected leaf material is not available for DNA extraction, we cannot suggest in which of the different clades of the current phylogeny of Capsicum [1] it could be placed.

Results

Conclusion