Two new Andean genera for the tribeSpathicarpeae (Araceae)

Abstract

Goncalves, E. G.: Two new Andean genera for the tribe Spathicarpeae (Araceae). – Willdenowia 35: 319-326. – ISSN 0511-9618; © 2005 BGBM Berlin-Dahlem. doi:10.3372/wi.35.35214 (available via http://dx.doi.org/) Two unispecific Andean genera are described as new to science in the tribe Spathicarpeae (Araceae) and illustrated, based on two species formerly placed in the genus Asterostigma. The genus Incarum is erected to accommodate A. pavonii that occurs in Andean Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, and the new combination Incarum pavonii is validated. The genus Croatiella is erected to accommodate A. integrifolium from Ecuador and the new combination Croatiella integrifolia is validated. Incarum is considered related to the Andean genera Gorgonidium and Spathantheum, whereas Croatiella seems to be an isolated lineage within the core Spathicarpeae. The arguments to support these new genera come from cpDNA sequence data, as well as from biogeographical and morphological aspects. The neotropical genus Asterostigma Fisch. & C. A. Mey. was formerly known as having nine species, most of them distributed in coastal Brazil, but including two species with an Andean distribution (Goncalves 1999). Asterostigma along with Gorgonidium Schott, Spathantheum Schott, Mangonia Schott, Taccarum Brongn. ex Schott, Gearum N. E. Br., Spathicarpa Hook. and Synandrospadix Engl. form the wholly neotropical tribe Spathicarpeae (sensu Mayo & al. 1997). For a taxonomic revision of this tribe (Goncalves, in prep.), its members and putative allies have been evaluated by means of cpDNA phylogeny and morpho-anatomical studies (unpubl. data). The results of this broad survey will be published elsewhere, but one result is that the two species of Asterostigma with an Andean distribution have been shown to be sufficiently different from all other genera in the tribe (and also from each other) to represent two separate genera, which are here described as new to science.