Griffinia alba (Amaryllidaceae), a New Species from Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Griffinia alba is described as new from Tapera, Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil. It is most similar to the type species for the genus Griffinia, G. hyacinthina, which is known from the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil. It differs from this species by its cuneate leaf bases, and more numerous, entirely white flowers with longer pedicels and narrower tepals. Griffinia alba is the first white-flowered species to be described in subgenus Griffinia. RESUMO. Griffinia alba e descrita como uma nova especie do municipio de Tapera, Pernambuco, Brasil. Grffinia alba e mais semelhante na forma a G. hyacinthina, que e encontrada nos estados do Rio de Janiero e Sdo Paulo. Difere desta pela base cuneada da folha, flores inteiramente brancas mais numerosas com pedicelos mais longos, e tepalas mais estreitas. Grffinia alba e a primeira Griffinia com flores cor de branco descrita no sobgenero Griffinia. The most recent taxonomic treatment of the genus Griffinia Ker Gawler (Amaryllidaceae) recognizes six species (Traub & Moldenke, 1949). However, since that time the genus Hyline Herbert, composed of two species, has been reduced to a subgenus of Griffinia (Ravenna, 1969), and an additional four species belonging to subgenus Griffinia have been described (Morel, 1960; Ravenna, 1969, 1974, 1978). The genus is unique in the Amaryllidaceae for the presence of a true hypanthium, formed by the continuation of the perigonal tube over the ovary in some of the species (Ravenna, 1969; Preuss, 1999). Phylogenetic analyses based on nuclear rDNA ITS sequences resolve Griffinia as sister group to the monotypic Worsleya rayneri (Hooker f.) Traub & Moldenke, also endemic to Brazil (Meerow et al., 2000; Preuss, 1999). Griffinia is marked by its petiolate and sometimes white or silver-spotted leaves, its turgid seed lacking phytomelan, and blue range pigmentation in the flowers (subg. Grffinia), a character shared ith Worsleya. All species that we have examined have 2n = 20 chromosomes, with frequent triploidy (2n = 30) characteristic of cultivated relicts of exirpated populations (Preuss, 1999). Griffinia is native to the various forest ecotypes of the Mata Atlantica and the nearby northeastern regions of the Caatinga Province (Oliveira-Filho & Ratter, 1995). Griffinia subg. Griffinia is characterized by small to large, diurnal, strongly zygomorphic, lilac, or lilac and white-colored flowers with the upper stamen assurgent and separated from the other declinate five (or sometimes obsolete). This subgenus occupies moist tropical forest habitats of the Mata Atlantica, or Brazilian Atlantic Forest, ranging from the state of Pernambuco in the north to the state of Siio Paulo in the south. Grffinia subg. Hyline has fragrant, large, nocturnal, white-colored flowers, and occupies a more xeric habitat such as the deciduous cerrado forests found in Goiais and Tocantins and the caatinga woodlands of the northeast region. Belonging to subgenus Grffinia, G. alba is described as new from Tapera, Pernambuco, and is the only species of Griffinia known to occur in that