Becquerelia clarkei T.Koyama
-
Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1967. The botany of the Guayana Highland--Part VII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 17: 1-439.
-
Family
Cyperaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Description
Species Description - Plant perennial, hardly tufted; rhizome rather slender, short creeping, covererl with reddish-brown scales 2 cm long or more; roots dark purple-brown. Culm central, usually solitary to a clump, 20-30 cm tall, 1.7-3 mm thick, triangular, purple-brown-verruculose throughout, leaved at base. Leaves basal and sometimes the uppermost one on the culm; blade linear-lanceolate, (10-) 20-50 cm long, 13-22 mm wide, flat, herbaceous, 3-costate, fresh green above, reddish-purple beneath, subabruptly acute at apex, gradually narrowed below to scarcely petiolate base; sheath ample, up to 10 cm long, reddish-purple; the lower 3 or 4 sheaths bladeless, 4-9 cm long, ventral part hyahne brown. Inflorescences congested at 2 or 3 nodes of culm, relatively remote, sometimes the lowest subbasal, each paniculate-spicate with 4 to 8 spikes; the peduncle short, almost inclosed in the bract-sheath; bracts leaf-like, up to 22 cm long 2 cm wide, much exceeding inflorescence, the 1 or 2 lower bracts short-sheathing (0.5-1 cm) at base. Spikes compound, 7-9 mm long, lance-oblong, sessile; glumes 6-9, spirally disposed; the lowest and the following 2 above small, ovate, ca 2 mm long, each bearing an axillary sessile ovate staminate spikelet 2-2.5 mm long; the uppermost glume and the following 2 below larger than the others, ovate, 6-6.5 mm long, 2.5-3 mm wide, acute and slightly recurved at apex, herbaceous, with a broad keel and fine tubercle-based hairs above the middle, the base with spongy thickening; the glumes between those 6, if present, similar in shape to the upper 3 but slightly smaller and without basal spongy thickening. Fructification (i.e., pistillate spikelet) solitary, terminal; cupule more or less truncate-margined, 3 mm wide, 1 mm high, creamy; achene exposed above the cupule, depressed-globose, 2.5-2.75 mm across, 2.25-2.5 mm tall, white-opaque, bony, verruculose and puberulent on verrucules; stigmas 3.
Distribution and Ecology - Known only from two localities in Bahia and Minas Geraes, eastern Brazil.
-
Discussion
Hoppia bicolor C. B. Clarke, Kew Bull. Add. Ser. 8: 62. 1908, non Becquerelia bicolor (Xees) H. Pfeiffer, 1922.
Bisboeckelera bicolor (C. B. Ciarke) Standley, Contr. U.S. Xat. Herb. 17: 429. 1914.
Bisboeckelera irrigua 0. Kuntze var major H. Pfeiffer, Repert. Sp. Xov. 42: 255. 1937. A new name for Hoppia birolor.
Una, near Our Preto, Minas Geraes, Brazil, Riedel s.n., March 1899 (holotype LE , isotype! K, photo! N Y ) .
Since this .species has never been studied in a mature state, previous workers could not reach proper generic attribution. Although it superficially closely resembles the species of Bisboeckelera, especially in the features of leaves and more or less congested inflorescences at the immature state, the structure of spikes and character of mature fructifications observed on a collection from Bahia, R. de Lemos Froes 19944, clearly indicate that it belongs to Becquerelia. Its taxonomic affinity with B. discolor is suggested by the Bisboeckelera-like vegetative parts and simpler inflorescences. Hoppia bicolor, the only specific name given to this species, cannot be transferred to Becquerelia because of the presence of an earlier homonym. A new name, B. clarkei, is proposed for this species, commemorating Dr. C. B. Clarke, who first described it.