Transfer of Four Peruvian Altamiranoa Species to Sedum (Crassulaceae)

Abstract

Recently Altamiranoa Rose (-- Villadia sect. Altamiranoa (Rose) R. T. Clausen) was merged with Sedum L. For four Peruvian Altamiranoa species without valid names in Sedum we propose three new combinations: Sedum decipiens (Baker) Thiede & 't Hart, Sedum reniforme (H. Jacobsen) Thiede & 't Hart, and Sedum weberbaueri (Diels) Thiede & 't Hart, and one new name, Sedum plicatum Thiede 8 't Hart. A lectotype is designated for Cotyledon decipiens Bak- er, the basionym of Sedum decipiens. Rose (in Britton & Rose, 1903: 3) described the genera Altamiranoa Rose and Villadia Rose to ac- commodate some Mexican Crassulaceae with sym- petalous flowers. Previously these species had mostly been classified in Cotyledon L., the hold-all of sym- petalous Crassulaceae. Berger (1930) included both genera in subfamily Echeverioideae A. Berger, but noted that several Altamiranoa species are very sim- ilar to Sedum. Berger (1930) considered Altamiranoa and Villadia to be closely related though they differ in the structure of the inflorescences. Altamiranoa has predominantly cymose inflorescences, whereas those of Villadia are usually spicate, racemose, or, most frequently, thyrsoid. Froderstrom (1936) more or less accepted Rose's concept, but transferred sev- eral Altamiranoa species to Sedum. Baehni and Macbride (in Baehni, 1937), on the other hand, unit- ed Altamiranoa and Villadia, and Clausen (1940) distinguished Altamiranoa as a section of Villadia. Baehni's and Clausen's classifications have been widely accepted until recently, when Moran (1996) merged Villadia sect. Altamiranoa (Rose) R. T. Clau- sen (-Altamiranoa) with Sedum. In particular the occurrence of intermediate forms bridging the gap between Altamiranoa and Sedum, and his doubts about the monophyly of Villadia in the sense of Baehni and Macbride and Clausen, prompted Mor- an's decision. Moran (1996) already made the nec- essary new combinations under Sedum for three