Dyckia albolutea Leme & A.S. Farias-Castro, 2025

Leme, Elton M. C., Souza, Everton Hilo De, Till, Walter, Barfuss, Michael H. J., Filho, José Alves Siqueira, Kollmann, Ludovic J. C., Couto, Dayvid R., Fraga, Claudio Nicoletti De, Fontana, André P., Farias-Castro, Antônio S., Fernandes, João B. & Silva, Da, 2025, Twenty Miscellaneous New Species and One New Nothogenus and Nothospecies in Brazilian Bromeliaceae, Phytotaxa 692 (1), pp. 1-60 : 24-26

Dyckia albolutea Leme & A.S. Farias-Castro , sp. nov. ( Fig. 10 A–N )

Diagnosis:––This new species can be distinguished from the morphologically closest relative, Dyckia tubifilamentosa Wanderley & G. Souza (2014: 315) , by the sepals free (vs. connate at the base) and shorter (6–7 mm vs. 8–11 cm), petals yellow (vs. green), and the filament tube white at anthesis and afterwards (vs. white at anthesis becoming winish or purplish colored afterwards).

Type: –– BRAZIL. Ceará: Granja, Serra da Timbaúba, distrito de Pessoa Anta, São Miguel, próximo Cachoeira de São Miguel , 104 m elev., 03º21’45.18” S, 41º01’42.13” W, 26 May 2022, A. S . Farias-Castro 3109, cult. E. Leme 10168 (holotype RB!, isotype SEL!) .

Description:–– Plant saxicolous, clustering, flowering 27–45 cm tall; Leaves 14–18 in number, densely rosulate, strongly thick coriaceous; sheath much broader than the blades, subreniform, ca. 1.8 × 2.5 cm, whitish toward the base, yellowish-green to yellowish and corrugate near the distal end, glabrescent; blade suberect-arcuate to subspreading, narrowly triangular, attenuate toward the apex, 8–10 cm long, 1.2–1.5 cm wide at the base, ca. 4 mm thick in the middle, abaxially inconspicuously and sparsely white lepidote to glabrescent, distinctly nerved, adaxially densely and coarsely white lepidote near the base and inconspicuously and sparsely white lepidote to glabrescent toward the apex, slightly canaliculate mainly toward the base, nearly flat toward the apex, apex long-caudate, margins subdensely (at the base) to laxly (toward the apex) spinose; spines narrowly triangular, 1–2 mm long, 0.5–0.8 mm wide at the base, 3–12 mm apart, flat, glabrous, dark castaneous toward the apex, antrorse to sometimes nearly straight; peduncle lateral, 18– 30 cm × 1.5–2.5 mm, erect, rigid, glabrous, green; peduncle bracts with a subtriangular base, 3–4 × 2.5–3 mm, and a filiform distal blade, 10–15 × 0.3–0.5 mm, distinctly shorter than the internodes, erect or nearly so, entire, stramineous, finely nerved, ecarinate but bearing a protruded central nerve. Inflorescence (fertile part) racemose, simple, 5–10 cm long, erect, subspirally contorted, rachis slender, nearly straight, green, glabrous, smooth, internodes 5–10 × 1–1.5 mm; floral bracts the basal ones resembling the peduncle bracts, with a subtriangular ovate base, 3–4 × 2–2.5 mm, and a slenderly filiform distal blade, 3–6 mm, about equaling to slightly shorter than the sepals, the upper ones shorter than the sepals, suberect except for the abruptly recurved distal end, ecarinate but sometimes bearing a protruded central nerve, subtriangular-ovate, stramineous, 3–5 × 2–2.5 mm, glabrous, finely acuminate-caudate to acute and apiculate, margins entire. Flowers 5–12 in number, upwardly secund forming an unilaterally oriented row, subdensely to laxly arranged, completely exposing the rachis, 27–35 mm long (including the stamens), erect, inconspicuously pedicellate, pedicel stout, ca. 2 × 2.5 mm, green; sepals symmetrical, free, erect, suboblong to subtriangular-ovate, apex acute to obtuse, ecarinate, 6–7 × 3–3.5 mm, yellowish, glabrous, thin in texture, finely nerved, entire, slightly covering each other at the base; petals symmetrical, narrowly suboblong-elliptic to narrowly subspathulate, acute to narrowly obtuse and apiculate, exappendiculate, free, 18–21 × 5–6 mm, yellow, glabrous, slightly covering each other at the base and distinctly shorter than the stamens, erect, forming a tubular calyx-like corolla; stamens distinctly exceeding the petals; filaments flat, membranaceous, white at anthesis and afterwards, completely connate to each other and forming a tube distinctly exceeding the petals, not adnate to the petals, 24–30 mm long; anthers sublinear-attenuate, 5.5–6 mm long, base bilobed to obtuse, apex acuminate, dorsifixed near the base, erect and coalescent-convergent toward the apex before anthesis, distinctly spreading-recurved at anthesis and afterwards, radially arranged, forming a stellate structure. Pistil 17–21 mm long, deeply included in the filament tube; ovary totally superior, narrowly ovate, 4–6 mm long; placentation basal; ovules obtuse; style 9–10 mm long, greenish-yellow, terete; stigma conduplicate-spiral, subcylindrical, blades 4–5 mm long, margins scalloped. Capsules unknown.

Distribution and habitat:–– Dyckia albolutea is known from the type locality only, inhabiting the county of Granja, the westernmost municipality in the state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. It is a heliophyte and lives as a saxicole on karstic soils in metacarbonate rocky outcrops in Cerrado vegetation (fig. 10 A–D). It shares the habitat with Encholirium spectabile Martius ex Schultes & Schultes f. (1830: 1233) , as well as with the Euphorbiaceae Euphorbia lycioides Boissier (1860: 29) , the Velloziaceae Vellozia tubiflora (A. Richard 1822: 300) Kunth (1824: 155) , and Melastomataceae Comolia villosa ( Aublet 1775: 334) Triana (1871 [1872]: 37).

Etymology:––The name of this new species is a reference to its flowers with the white colored, well-developed filament tube at anthesis and afterwards, in contrast with the yellow color of its corolla (fig. 10 F, G), on the basis of the Latin words albus (= white) combined with luteus (= yellow).

Distinctive characters:— Dyckia albolutea is a very unusual species by its filament tube distinctly exceeding the corolla and with a contrasting color, sharing this characteristic only with D. tubifilamentosa . It can be distinguished from the morphologically closest relative, D. tubifilamentosa , by the leaf blades inconspicuously and sparsely white-lepidote to glabrescent abaxially (vs. cinereous lepidote), sepals free (vs. connate at the base), shorter (6–7 mm vs. 8–11 cm), and yellow (vs. green), petals yellow (vs. green), filament tube longer (24–30 mm vs. 20–23 mm), white at anthesis and afterwards (vs. white at anthesis and winish or purplish colored afterwards).

Figures

FIGURE 10. Dyckia albolutea (Farias-Castro 3109): A–B. General view of metacarbonate rocky outcrops in the Cerrado domain, at the type locality. C–D. Saxicolous habit on karstic soils in metacarbonate rocky outcrops. E. Details of the central portion of the leaf rosette. F–G. Details of the inflorescence with flowers in different stages of development. H. Pistil and stamen, highlighting the long tube formed by the filaments. I. Sepals. J. Petal. K, M. Distal portion of the filament tube and anthers. L. Peduncle bract. N. Conduplicate-spiral stigma type. A–G. Photos A.S. Farias-Castro. Bars = 5 mm (H–J). Bars = 2 mm (K–N).