Piper fragile Benth.

Gardner, R. O., 2013, Piper (Piperaceae) in New Guinea: the climbing species, Blumea 57 (3), pp. 275-294 : 283-284

8. Piper fragile Benth.

Piper fragile Benth.(1843) 234;Quisumb.(1930) 99; Chew (1972) 7; Fosberg & Sachet (1975) 19; Peekel (1984) 203; R.O. Gardner (2006) 581; (2010) 11. — Type: Hinds s.n. (K n.v.), New Guinea.

Distribution — Molucca Is., Philippine Is., New Guinea (northern coast, also Milne Bay and Bismarck Archipelago), Solomon Is., Vanuatu, Micronesia.

Habitat & Ecology — Coastal forest and scrub,mainly on limestone and coral sands, perhaps only to c. 100 m altitude.

Notes — De Candolle (1869: 336) based his P. barclayanum on a BM collection from the H.M.S. ‘Sulphur’ voyage: Barclay 4021, island of Japen (‘In ins. Tobia’), West New Guinea. He placed it at that time in his sect. Pothomorphe , which included taxa like P. peltatum L. and Macropiper spp. Subsequently, in his Candollea treatment (1923: 171), he placed it in sect. Macropiper . Smith (1975: 35) was unable to locate a type for P. barclayanum and commented that there was nothing in its description to suggest it was a Macropiper . He might have added that a New Guinea occurrence would be a notable regional range extension westwards from the Santa Cruz Is.

A sheet of Barclay 4021 (BM 000624274, image!) has been found in the present study, but bears no De Candollean annotation. It represents P. fragile .

Piper fragile might be confused with P. abbreviatum , but its leaves are glabrous and thicker and tend to dry olive yellowish rather than dark grey. Also, its leaves (mainly just the climbingshoot ones) are subpeltate to peltate.

In New Guinea this species seems to occur just along the northern coasts and on the islands there. Fosberg & Sachet (1975) say it is common in Micronesian lowland forests. Peekel

!

Fig. 4 Piper species, various features. — a. P. celtidiforme Opiz. Infructescence , showing ring of white papillae around base of stigmas. – b. P. decumanum L. Leaf underside, showing pustulate stomata. – c. P. macropiper Pennant s.str. Specimen from Morobe Province, leaf underside, showing dendritic hairs. – d. P. macropiper var. macrophylla R.O.Gardner. Leaf underside, showing indument of nerves near blade base. – e. P. mestonii F.M.Bailey. Infructescence , longitudinal section, showing coriaceous surface of the fused ovaries, long styles and ‘2-lipped’ stigmas. – f. P. versteegii C.DC. Infructescence , showing the long styles and very narrow stigmas. – g. P. subcanirameum C.DC. Infructescence (rehydrated), showing the mostly-free fruitlets. – h. P. cf. amboinense C.DC. Leaf base below, showing ant-sac (a: NGF 32677; b: Darbyshire & Hoogland 8124; c: Takeuchi 4572; d: Takeuchi 8675; e: NGF 40944; f: Brass 7000; g: Takeuchi 5756, B; h: Kanehira & Hatusima 11500; all from A except as noted). — Scale bars = 1 mm.

(1984: 129) describes it in the Bismarck Archipelago: “Frequent; climbing on tree-trunks and on coral rocks behind beaches. The natives gaily crown themselves with the decorative, often mottled, leaves”.