Sapranthus violaceus (Dunal) Saff.

Schatz, G. E., Maas, P. J. M., Kamer, H. Maas-van de, Westra, L. Y. T. & Wieringa, J. J., 2018, Revision of the Neotropical genus Sapranthus (Annonaceae), Blumea 63 (1), pp. 54-66 : 61-63

7. Sapranthus violaceus (Dunal) Saff. — Fig. 3 ; Map 2

Sapranthus violaceus (Dunal) Saff. (1911) 471. — Unona violacea Dunal (1817) 105,t. 25 [ Fig.3c ]. — Type: Sessé & Mociño Icon.Ined., 1787–1803 (fl) (lecto,designated by Maas et al.1994, Torner Collection 1791 [ Fig.3a ], Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh PA; other original material:Torner Collection 1814 [ Fig. 3b ],Hunt Inst.Bot.Doc.; unnumbered Torner Collection drawing identical to 1791 but lacking handwriting, Hunt Inst. Bot. Doc.), Mexico-Nicaragua.

Sapranthus nicaraguensis Seem.(1866) 369,t. 54. — Porcelia nicaraguensis (Seem.) Benth.& Hook.f.(1867) 956. — Uvaria nicaraguensis (Seem.) Baill. (1868) 195. — Asimina nicaraguensis (Seem.) Hemsl.(1887) 96. — Type: Seemann s.n. (or possibly Seemann 4 (BM) (holo K;iso BM,K), Nicaragua, Chontales, between Leon and Granada, no date.

Asimina foetida Rose (1897) 134. — Sapranthus foetidus (Rose) Saff. (in Standley 1922) 278. — Type: Palmer 394 (lecto (designated by Fries 1930) US 2 sheets; iso A, BM, F 2 sheets, GH, K, MO, UC), Mexico, Guerrero, Acapulco and vicinity, Feb. 1895.

Sapranthus longipedunculatus R.E.Fr. (as ‘ Sapranthus longepedunculatus ’) (1930) 7, f. 1. — Type: Langlassé 128bis (holo K; iso B, P), Mexico, Guer- rero, La Barranca, 150 m, 2 May 1898.

Sapranthus borealis R.E.Fr. (1930) 11, f. 2c. — Type: Gonzalez Ortega 856 (Narvaez, Montes & Salazar 856)(holo K;iso K,MEXU 2sheets, US), Mexico, Sinaloa, Arroyo del Palmar, La Caña, San Ignacio, 450 m, 3 June 1919.

Sapranthus megistanthus Standl. & Steyerm. (1943) 7. — Type: Standley 59219 (holo F; iso A, NY), Guatemala, Guatemala, on roadside bank, Estancia Grande, 600 m, 8 Dec. 1938.

Tree 3–12 m tall, to c. 30 cm diam; young twigs and petiole densely covered with erect and appressed, white, long-persisting hairs to c. 1 mm long. Leaves: petiole 3–13 mm long, 1–2 mm diam; lamina elliptic to obovate, 7–30 by 3–12 cm, sparsely covered with erect hairs mainly along the veins above, densely so along primary vein, densely covered with erect and appressed, white hairs to c. 1 mm long below, base obtuse to truncate, sometimes acute, apex acute to shortly acuminate (acumen to c. 5 mm long), venation weakly brochidodromous, primary vein impressed above, secondary veins 6–12 on either side of primary vein, raised above, tertiary veins raised above, more or less percurrent. Inflorescence and flower indument: pedicels and outer side of bracts, sepals, and petals sparsely to rather densely covered with appressed, white hairs. Flowers solitary, occasionally produced from the main trunk; pedicels 6–43 mm long, c. 1 mm diam, to c. 6 mm diam in fruit; bract leafy, broadly ovate to triangular, 6–35 by 3–22 mm; sepals distinctly 5- or 6-veined, broadly ovate-triangular, 6–18 by 5–15 mm, spreading to reflexed; petals membranous, deep purple brown at anthesis, 5–8-veined, narrowly elliptic, nar- rowly oblong-elliptic, to narrowly obovate, 25–120(–190) by 12–30(–70) mm, the venation prominently raised on the outer surface, base obtuse to cuneate, geniculate and abruptly narrowing to form a short claw, the food body cream-yellow, fleshy, glistening, apex obtuse to acute. Monocarps 10–25, glaucous green to brown, ellipsoid, oblongoid-ellipsoid to obovoid, 35–70 by 15–30 mm, densely covered with appressed, curly, greyish hairs, creating a glaucous appearance, apex obtuse, wall 2–6 mm thick, stipes 2–8 mm long, 5–6 mm diam. Seeds 1–10, in one or two rows, spherical wedge-shaped, 10–21 by 4–9 mm, smooth, orange-brown.

Distribution — Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua.

Habitat & Ecology — In low, dry semideciduous forest. At elevations of 0–1200 m. Flowering: all year through, but par- ticularly May and June; fruiting: all year through.

Vernacular names — El Salvador: Anona blanca (Flores 394), Asta (López s.n., Rodríguez 2124, Rosales 447, 703, 738), Asta de costa (Sandoval s.n.), Asta de media altura (Martínez 876), Hasta (Martínez 625), Palanco (Witsberger 302). Guatemala: Palanco (Hazlett 2602). Honduras: Ala de murcielago ( Molina R. 856). Mexico: Anonillo (Hinton 4564), Cacao ( Hughes & Elorsa 1916), Flora de mula negra (Kruse 1101), Morsiegalo (Langlassé 128bis), Platanito ( Hughes & Elorsa 1916), Zopilote (Hinton 9182), Zopilotillo ( Ortega 856). Nicaragua: Palanca/Palanco ( Coronado et al. 582, Grijalva et al. 1733, 2626, 2683, 4094, Rueda 11915, 13887, 15972, Sandino & Aldubin 4393, Stevens 22420).

Field observations — ‘ Flores de aroma fuerte y nause- abundo’ (Araquistain 3479, Nicaragua); ‘flowers with the stink of rotting meat’ (Davidse 30531, Nicaragua); ‘flores moradas, olor desagradable’ ( Moreno 9436, Nicaragua); ‘frutos verdes de olor extravagante’ ( Moreno 21967, Nicaragua); ‘flowers with a strong rotting meat odor attracting flies flowers have a foul odor’ (Rodríguez 2336, Vincelli 709, Nicaragua); ‘flores fetidas’ ( Rueda 1191, Nicaragua); ‘flor púrpura grande, con olor muy fuerte desagradable’ (Sandino et al. 4393, 4426, 4437, Nicaragua); ‘flowers with strong fetid odor’ (Schatz & Stevens 586, 587, Stevens 30314, Nicaragua); ‘flowers producing a strong fetid odor and apparently heat, the flowers seemingly warmer than the surrounding air’ (Stevens 20308, Nicaragua); ‘flowers with a strong rotten meat odor attracting flies’ (Stevens 28423, 29623, Nicaragua); ‘fruits eaten’ (Vincelli 480, Nicaragua).

Notes — Sapranthus violaceus can be recognized by an indument of short, whitish appressed and erect hairs, its solitary, usually leaf-opposed flowers (occasionally borne on older wood), quite large petals (25–120(–190) by 12–30(–70) mm), and numerous stipitate monocarps (10–25).

Although Safford (1911) first signalled the correct generic place- ment of Dunal’s (1817) Unona violacea by providing new combinations for both it and Asimina foetida in Sapranthus, Fries (1930: 11) was reluctant to recognize Unona violacea Dunal despite his statement that ‘the plant is certainly a Sapranthus species’. Under his discussion of S. foetidus, Fries (1930) cites the pedicel in the Dunal illustration ( Dunal 1817: t. 25, f. 4) as being too long for S. foetidus (and, therefore, why did it not correspond to his newly described species S. longepidunculatus ?), and his having not examined a type specimen of Unona violacea , as justifications for not treating the Dunal species.

Ironically, however, Dunal based his description of Unona violacea , as well as those of Annona purpurea Sessé & Moc. ex Dunal and Unona penduliflora [= Cymbopetalum penduliflorum (Dunal) Baill. ], the three Annonaceae he described from the Sessé and Mociño Expedition to New Spain, solely on the drawings made during the expedition, which were brought to Montpellier by Mociño after he fled from Spain in 1813. They serve as the types for these three species ( McVaugh 1980, 1982, 1998, Murray 1993). Unona violacea is represented by three of the Sessé & Mociño drawings: one, a less polished field sketch (Torner Collection 1814 ( Fig. 3a )) and two other nearly identical more finished drawings, one of which has been numbered Torner Collection 1791 ( Fig. 3b ), the other of which has been left unnumbered. These latter two drawings served as the model upon which the artist Node-Veran based his engraving for Dunal’s Monograph, Plate 25 ( Fig. 3c ). The field sketch (Torner Collection 1814) has written on it in ink (the handwriting perhaps that of Mociño, ‘ Ubaria purpurea N’, the ‘b’ presumably a linguistic transformation of a Spanish ‘v’, and hence indicating a new species and preliminary assignment to the genus Uvaria . The more finished drawing (Torner Col- lection 1791) has written in pencil below the drawing ‘ Uvaria? purpurea ’, the handwriting perhaps Dunal’s. The nearly identical unnumbered drawing lacks any annotation. With the exception of failing to include the secondary cross venation in the petals and completing the three leaves cut off at their margins on the original drawing, Node-Veran accurately copied the drawing in preparation for the engraver. By the time the Monograph ap- peared in 1817, Dunal had rejected placement of the species in Uvaria , describing it instead as a Unona , with the epithet ‘ violacea ’ instead of ‘ purpurea ’.

Insofar as the expedition drawings of S. violaceus are not part of the Icones Florae Mexicanae (a numbered series of species collected in western Mexico during the early part of the expedi- tion), it is not possible to determine the exact provenance of the plants from which the drawings were made. In all likelihood they were encountered relatively late in the expedition during the travels of Mociño and the artist Cerda from Mexico to Costa Rica and back, during the period 1795–1799 ( McVaugh 1977 and pers. comm.).

The five species brought together here in synonymy under S. violaceus have previously been distinguished on the basis of petal size and shape, and pedicel length, all of which vary greatly and continuously, both within an individual, and throughout the broad geographical range extending from Nicaragua north to Sinaloa, Mexico. For example, although Standley & Steyermark (1943) described the petals of S. megistanthus from Guatemala as 170–190 mm long, supposedly ‘twice as long as any other member of the genus’, two different flowers from the type collection with petals measuring 130 and 139 mm were seemingly ignored, one of which overlaps with petals 132 mm long exhibited by a collection from Nicaragua (Schatz & Stevens 587). Similarly, Fries (1930) described the petals of S. borealis from Sinaloa, Mexico, as 25–33 mm long despite one flower on the type collection with petals 44 mm long. He later annotated another Sinaloa collection ( Ortega 6695) with petals to 55 mm long as S. borealis ‘petala longa’, which falls within the range of variation in petal length exhibited in Nicaragua. Pedicel length is also highly variable, exhibiting nearly as much variation in a single collection (12–33 mm long for Schatz & Stevens 586 from Nicaragua) as the total variation of 6–43 mm manifest throughout the total distribution range, thus easily encompassing the 28–35 mm long pedicels of the type of S. longipedunculatus (Langlassé 128bis) from Guer- rero, Mexico.

Figures

Map 2 Distribution of Sapranthus isae J.G.Vélez & Cogollo (■) and S. violaceus (Dunal) Saff. (●).

Fig. 3 Sapranthus violaceus (Dunal) Saff. Flowering branches (a: Torner Collection 1814, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation; b: Torner Collection 1791, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, lectotype; c: Dunal (1817): t. 25; d: Schatz & Stevens 587). — Photo d by G.E. Schatz.