Piper versteegii C.DC.

Gardner, R. O., 2013, Piper (Piperaceae) in New Guinea: the climbing species, Blumea 57 (3), pp. 275-294 : 291

16. Piper versteegii C.DC. — Fig. 4f, 8c, d, 7e, f; Map 3

Piper versteegii C.DC. (1910) 415; Chew (1972) 19. — Type: Versteeg 1136 (isolecto BO, L image!), West New Guinea, Noord-rivier.

Ultimate leafy internodes c. 5 – 8 mm diam, usually with distinct narrow ridges c. 1 mm apart. Vegetative parts glabrous except for short patent hairs on stipule. Stipule to c. 1.5 cm long. Leaf blade (chartaceous-)subcoriaceous, drying mid-brown or greyish, broadly ovate(-elliptic), c. 13– 25 by 10– 20 cm; base rounded to cordate and equal at petiole; apex shortly acuminate; main lateral nerves usually 3–4 pairs, the lower 2–3 pairs basal, the upper pair from c. 1/3 way along midrib (or rarely, replaced by several relatively weak equal pairs from middle part of blade), all nerves rounded- to sharply prominent above; surfaces of blade not gland-dotted. Petiole stout, to c. 20 cm long, usually c. 1/3–1/2 as long as blade. Male inflorescence a fascicle of up to 7 short-peduncled spikes, at its base a congested group of stipule-like structures c. 0.5–1.5 cm long, sometimes 1–several internodes c. 2 – 5 cm long interpolated between this grouping and the spikes; rachis glabrous, bracts of inflorescence sessile, orbicular, 0.4–0.8 mm diam; stamens 2 per flower, filament slender, c. 0.25 mm long, anther 0.25–0.4 mm diam, dehiscing laterally. Infructescence a stout spike to c. 8 cm long, 0.8 –1.5 cm diam, on a peduncle c. 1–2 cm long, spikes solitary or 2 – 3 fascicled together as in the male, dull yellowish to orange when ripe; rachis and bracts as in male. Fruitlets usually fully concrescent, tapering above for c. 0.5 mm into a terete style c. 1(– 2) mm long; stigmas 2(–4), narrow-ovate, glabrous or only minutely papillose (40), together (when fully spread) 0.8 – 1.5 mm diam.

Distribution — New Guinea, apparently throughout; perhaps rare in the Bismarck Archipelago.

Habitat & Ecology — In forest, to c. 1350 m altitude.

Notes — This species appears to be widely but sparsely distributed in the New Guinea lowlands; I have seen fewer than twenty collections of it. I know of only one collection from the Bismarck Archipelago, (NGF 21973, West New Britain; BRI, image!). Presumably the species is uncommon there, since Peekel (1984) does not mention it.

De Candolle’s protologue is based on three specimens, Versteeg 1136, 1350 and 1768, all obtained on the Noord-rivier ( Lorentz River , West New Guinea) during the First Lorentz Expedition to Dutch Southern New Guinea, 1907. It contains information about both sexes. Chew (1972) chose the first collection as lectotype, without comment. The L duplicate of this appears to be female .

Chew (1972: 20) described the fruitlets as only ‘partially concrescent’ but I have seen only one such specimen ( Takeuchi 12682, Eastern Highlands, Crater Mountain, 1400 m, A); all others have fully concrescent fruit.

In the ripe fruit of P. versteegii (Fig. 4f) the surface of the ovaries appears to be softer and somewhat granular as compared to the coriaceous, smooth and glossy texture seen in P. mestonii . Also, the fruits of these two species seem to be differently coloured, those of P. mestonii generally being described as ‘red’ or ‘dark red’ or ‘bright red’.

The stipule-like structures grouped into a kind of rosette between the inflorescence(s) and the leaf-tipped shoot below can be interpreted to suggest that the architecture of this species is not so very different from that of the other New Guinea climbing pipers: the distinctive feature of P. versteegii would be that its fertile shoots have become greatly shortened and have lost their leaves, all that remain being the stipules. The observation by Chew (1972) that P. versteegii has leaves whose petiole is conspicuously sheathing is then correct (the implicit comparison being with the fertile-shoot leaves of P. mestonii ); note though that the latter’s sterile-shoot leaves are, as usual in climbing pipers, strongly sheathing.

Chew (1972) saw a “strong superficial similarity” between P. versteegii and P. mestonii , especially in leaf venation, and Van Royen (1982) placed the former under the latter without comment. However, there is no equivalent in P. versteegii of the narrow-leaved, higher-altitude form of P. mestonii .

Figures

Map 3 Distribution of Piper versteegii C.DC. in New Guinea. Representa- tive specimens.