Disciphania contraversa Barneby
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Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. 1972. New and notable Menispermaceae tribe Tinosporeae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 22: 137-151.
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Family
Menispermaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Latin Diagnosis - D. hernandiae (Veil.) Barneby foliis peltatis adspectuque toto praesimilis, sed flore [male] glaberrimo subdimidio majore basi campanulato obtusissimo nee cuneatim angustato, petalis evolutis e perianthii tubo ad anthesin breviter exsertis, foliorumque laminis fortius ac elevatius nervosis, reticuli ultimi areolis >nec< l mm diam abstans. Disciphania peltata sensu Barneby, Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 20(2): 147. 1970, non Diels.
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Discussion
Fig. 1.
Loan from Paris and subsequently from K e w of several sheets of Disciphania peltata ( = D . hernandia) collected in and near Rio de Janeiro by Glaziou between 1873 and 1891 has brought to hght a ludicrous flaw in m y revision (1970). The typecollection of Taubertia peltata K. Schum., Glaziou 3862 (fl [female]), known to m e in 1968 only through a phototype (of the sheet at B), represents not the "D. peltata" of my description and key but the related and deceptively similar species that I segregated as D. cryptobotrya. ^Misled by the photograph, I described as new the wrong member of this singular pair, burdening D. hernandia with a superfluous synonym and leaving its relative with sharply and closely reticulate leaves technically nameless. It is for the latter that I here propose the name D. contraversa.
Study of the Glaziou material, especially No. 12188 from Sao Christavao (fl [male] in Dec, 1880, K, P), reveals further that m y interpretation of the staminate perianth of "D. cryptobotrya" was based on immature flowers and is incorrect. In this species, as in some Abuta and Chondrodendron, the anthers dehisce before the perianth is fully grown, and flowers only half grown are easily mistaken for fully blown. The young staminate perianth of D. hernandia appears cleft almost to the base, but later develops below insertion of the stamens a vase-shaped hypanthioid tube. This feature permits the transfer of D. hernandia (cryptobotrya) from sect. Dioscoreopsis to sect. Taubertia, of which it is, in fact, the sectional type.
It will be seen that the two species are not, as recently appeared, sympatric in Rio de Janeiro, all collections made around and near Guanabara Bay being referable to D. hernandia, and all from Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul to D. contraversa. It is this geographical segregation that determines the identity of the "maritime" Cissampelos hernandia, presumably figured by Vellozo from a plant collected near the coast of Rio de Janeiro.