Calyptrocarya poeppigiana Kunth

Authority

Maguire, Bassett. 1967. The botany of the Guayana Highland--Part VII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 17: 1-439.

Family

Cyperaceae

Scientific Name

Calyptrocarya poeppigiana Kunth

Description

Distribution and Ecology - Discontinuous distribution area covers Colombia, northern Peru and the adjacent Brazilian Amazonia, and eastern Brazil including Para and Amapa. Rather scarce as undergrowth of tropical forests. COLOMBIA. El Choco: between Quebrada Guarapo and Mandinga, dense forest south of Rio Condoto, alt 120-180 m, Killip 35144, 35173 (US); La Concepcion, 15 km E of Quibdo, alt 75 m, Archer 1940 (US); Valle: Rio Colima, La Trojita, alt 5-50 m, Cuatrecascis 16.381 (US); Costa del Pacifico, rio Cajambre, Barco, alt 5-80 m, Cuatrecasas 17048 (US); Meta: Siera de la Maearena, Plaza Bonita, trail S of Camp 2. alt 400 m, Philipson 1498 (US); Yillavicencio, moist forest, alt 450 m, Pennell 1610; Bolivar, Boca Antizales on rio Esmeralda, mossy forest, alt 14001800 m, Pennell 4407. PERU. Loreto: Lower Rio Huallaga, alt 155-210 m, Williams 4347 (F, NY); Maynas, near Yurimagnas, Poeppig (type B). BRAZIL. Amazonas: Prov. Rio Negro, in vieinibus Barra, Spruce (990) (isotype of C. martii f. laxa NY); Rio Negro, in sylvis ad fiumen Japura, e.g., ad Cataractas de Araraccara, Martins 18 (type of C. martii M); Para: Maruary, Goeldi 1069 (NY, US): Amapa: Rio Oiapoque, 2 km N of mouth of Rio lane, Irwin et al 47805a. SURINAME. Savanna, ca 2 km N of Lucie River, 2 km W of Oost River, Maguire et al 54310.

Discussion

Calyptrocarya martii Nees, FI. Brasil. 2(1): 195. 1S42. Syn nov.

Heteranthe longifolia Schrader ex Nees, FI. Brasil. 2(1): 195. 1842. Xomen invalidum ex synonymia.

Becquerelia bicolor H. Pfeiffer f humilis H. Pfeiffer, Repert. Sp. Now 18: 381. 1922.

Becquerelia martii (Nees) H. Pfeiffer, Repert. Sp. Nov. 18 : 381. 1922; inch f typica H. Pfeiffer.

Becquerelia martii H. Pfeiffer f. laxa H. Pfeiffer, Repert. Sp. Nov. 18: 3S2. 1922. Syn nov.

Type. Maynas, prope Yurimagnas. in udis sylvarum, Nova Granata (Peru), Poeppig (holotype B, photo NY).

The present study has revealed that Nees in his revision of Calyptrocarya (Mart. FI. Brasil. 2(1): 192-196, t. 38. 1842) confused two different species under the name of C. poeppigiana. The same confusion has been repeated by all following cyperologists including Bockeler, Steudel, Pfeiffer, and Uittien. Although the plants of the C. poeppigiana complex are extremely variable especially in leaf characters, the two species, C. poeppigiana and C. bicolor, that I recognize are distinct. In C. poeppigiana, the leaves are completely radical with folded, linear blades which are gradually attenuate at a long acute apex and scarcely narrowed at the base, and the relatively large fructifications are 2 mm or more in length; whereas in C. bicolor, the leaves are subradical, i.e., the upper ones are on the basal part of culms, with flat, lanceolate blades which are abruptly contracted at the short-pointed apex and attenuate below to the quasi-petiolate base, and the relatively small fructifications are 1.5 mm long. The distribution ranges of these species are not the same. Calyptrocarya poeppigiana is concentrated in the tropical Andean region including all of Colombia and adjacent northern Peru and Amazonian Brazil, where C bicolor, which is dominant in the Amazonian basin and the Guayana region, rarely occurs.

According to the type specimen and the original description, Calyptrocarya poeppigiana Kunth represents the plant with linear, radical leaves, and larger fructifications and C. poeppigiana is the correct name for the first plant under discussion. Before Kunth (1937) described C poeppigiana, Xees in 1834 had recognized a similar plant with broader leaves and small fructifications. Xees named it C.bicolor and published the name in Linnaea, Vol. 9, as a nomen nudum. After the publication of Kunth's C poeppigiana, Xees's revision of Calyptrocarya appeared. In his revision Xees apparently was mistaken and applied the name, C. poeppigiana, to the broad-leaved plant previously called by him C. bicolor. Xees's description and the related plate 28 obviously indicates C bicolor. The binomial, C. bicolor, was thus put by Nees as a synonym under C poeppigiana sensu Xees, non Kunth, and it was not validated until Pfeiffer gave a Latin description in 1922.

As Calyptrocarya bicolor had never been validly published by Xees. he did not designate its type. Pfeiffer did not cite any specimen under typical C. bicolor. Xees (Mart. Fl. Brasil. 2(1): 192-196. 1842) cited two specimens of C. bicolor under C poeppigiana sensu Xees: Martiuss Brazilian and Poiteau’s Guinean collections. In Kunth's herbarium, the latter specimen, i.e., Guyane frangaise, (Poiteau) 126. bears a label stating “Calyptrocarya Poeppigiana Kunth. X. ab E! Cyp. bras. t. 28.” The note suggests that Nees's plate might possibly be based upon this collection. Because of this fact and because the duplicates of this Poiteau specimen are more widely distributed than the other, it is hereby chosen for the lectotype of C. bicolor.

Distribution

Discontinuous distribution area covers Colombia, northern Peru and the adjacent Brazilian Amazonia, and eastern Brazil including Para and Amapa. Rather scarce as undergrowth of tropical forests.

Colombia South America| Brazil South America| Suriname South America|