A new diminutive species of Schismatoglottis (Araceae) from Samar Island, Philippines
From Firenze University Press Journal: Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography (Webbia)
Marjorie D. delos Angeles, Plant Biology Division, Institute of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Los Baños
Danilo N. Tandang, Philippine National Herbarium, Botany and National Herbarium Division, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of the Philippines
Maria Melanie P. Medecilo-Guiang, Center for Biodiversity Research and Extension in Mindanao (CEBREM) and Department of Biology, Central Mindanao University, University Town
Inocencio E. Buot, Jr., Plant Biology Division, Institute of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Los Baños
Harald Schneider, Center for Integrative Conservation & Yunnan Key Laboratory for Conservation of Tropical Rainforests and Asian Elephants, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Marcos A. Caraballo-Ortiz, Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
The aroid genus Schismatoglottis Zoll. & Moritzi (1846: 83) comprises about 139 species distributed across the Malay Archipelago, with extensions towards the Pacific Islands (e.g., Vanatu), Indo-China, and tropical to sub-tropical China (Hay 1996; Hay and Yuzami 2000; Wong et al. 2016; Wong et al. 2018). The islands of the Philippines host about 9% of its diversity, with most species restricted to one or few islands (Wong et al. 2010; Pelser et al. 2011 onwards; Boyce et al. 2015). Schismatoglottis in Samar Island is represented by four species: S. calyp-trata (Roxb.) Zoll. & Moritzi (1846:590), S. edanoi A.Hay (2000: 121), S. plurivenia Alderw. (1922: 209), and S. samarensis A.Hay (2000:143), of which two species (S. edanoi and S. samarensis) areendemic.
Given the recent descriptions of many new species of Schismatoglottis from Borneo and the Malay Peninsula (Boyce and Wong 2015; Wong 2012; Wong et al. 2020; Wong and Boyce 2021; Wong et al. 2022), it is plausible that the diversity of this numerous genus has not been fully assessed in the Philippines, especially at remote biological hotspots such as Samar Island.While exploring Samar Island Natural Park at Paranas, Samar Island, the second author photographed a Schismatoglottis whose morphological characteristics did not fully match with any of the currently known Philip-pines species.
The most notable features were its remark-ably diminutive habit of about 3–6 cm tall and 21 cm wide, the cordate base of its leaves, and the size, slender shape, sharp tip, and white color of its inflorescences. Examinations of vegetative and floral characters suggest that this taxon belongs to the Calyptrata informal species group (sensu Hay and Yuzammi, 2000), which is characterized by having a long and persistent leaf sheath fully attached to stems, deciduous spathe limb, minute sessile stigmas, and inflorescences bearing an appendix of sterile male flowers that demarcate the pistillate and staminate sections (Hay and Yuzammi, 2000).
Further expeditions in Samar Island located a second population between Can-avid and Taft, and examinations of herbarium specimens revealed a third one at Matuguinao. Given the unique combination of charac-ters that do not fit within the variation reported from conspecifics in the Philippines and the centralized loca-tion of Samar Island at the eastern edge of the Philip-pine Archipelago (Figure 1), we consider that this taxon represents an undescribed member of Schismatoglottis. Hence, here we propose considering it as a new species, which appears to be restricted to Samar Island.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/jopt-14411
Read Full Text: https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/webbia/article/view/14411
