Passiflora cana J. M. MacDougal, 2025

Macdougal, John M. & Esquerre-Ibañez, Boris, 2025, Passiflora cana, a New Species of Passiflora Section Decaloba (Passifloraceae) from Peru, Phytotaxa 697 (2), pp. 197-205 : 198-203

Passiflora cana J. M. MacDougal , sp. nov. TYPE: Peru: Amazonas: Chachapoyas: road Leymebamba to Chachapoyas,

river valley at uniformly 1900–2100 m, areas over sand stone, 06°50’31”S, 077°57’12”W, 5 June 1998 (bud, fl.),

Max Weigend, Thassilo Franke, Jürgen Skrabal, & M. A. Gonzales 98/374a (holotype: USM-173499!; isotypes: F-

2211144!, M-[barcode] 0007956!). Figures 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 .

Diagnosis: — Passiflora cana is a conspicuously white-hirsute small climber with bilobed leaves with laminar nectary glands borne on the proximal half of the blades. The flowers are white with a green center, with filamentous corona in two series and a pilose ovary. It differs from the similar P. ketura Tillett & J. MacDougal by its conspicuous pubescence and pilose ovary. It belongs to subgenus Decaloba based on the plicate operculum, and assigned to section Decaloba based on the presence of laminar extrafloral nectaries in rows between the main veins, the cernuous shoot tip, and by the transverse verrucose or rugulose ridges on the seeds.

Small herbaceous vine ca. 2–3 m long, conspicuously hirsute and pilose throughout with trichomes usually of mixed sizes 0.15–1.6(–2.2) mm long, the trichomes straight, slender, erect, white-translucent. Stems up to 4 mm diam. at flowering nodes, subterete, obscurely striate, green often flushing purple, drying striate, subangulate; shoot tip cernuous; prophyll of the vegetative bud 1, (2–)3.5–5.5 × 0.5–1.0 mm, lanceolate to obtrullate, long acuminate, with a slender long tooth on each side above the middle (rarely untoothed, entire). Stipules (3.5–)5–10 × 0.5–1.3 mm, linearnarrowly triangular, subfalcate, long acuminate. Leaves with petioles 0.8–2.5 cm long, eglandular; laminas 2.5–9.1 (central vein length) × 2.3–9.5 cm wide, not variegated, in outline truncate-elliptic to widely elliptic to truncate-widely obovate; the ratio of laminar width to (central vein) length 0.79–1.3, rounded at the base, shallowly 2-lobed 1/10 to 2/5 (0.1–0.4) the distance to the base, the margin entire and hispidulous with trichomes 0.15–0.5 mm long, lateral lobe veins 3.0– 10.3 cm, ratio of lateral/central vein length 1.2–1.7, the apices of the lateral lobes acute to sometimes obtuse or rounded on larger leaves, the angle between the lateral lobes 30°–43°(–47)°, the central lobe absent, obsolete, or present as an obtuse cusp; lamina hispidulous adaxially with erect trichomes 0.2–0.4(–0.5) mm long, abaxially more densely hispidulous or pilose on the raised pale primary and secondary veins with trichomes 0.3–0.8 mm; laminar nectaries 2 to 10 per leaf, borne in the proximal ¼–1/3 (–1/2) of the blade, (2–)3–6(–9) borne between the main veins, 0–2 borne outside the main veins at their base, nectaries 0.5–1.5 mm diam., yellow or yellowish, not edged in purple, surrounded by a pale zone up to 2.0 mm diam. Peduncles (1)2 per node, 19–62 mm long not including floral stipe (pedicel), uniflorous; bracts 3, (3.0–)4.0–6.5 × 0.2–0.5 mm, filiform to linear, often slightly narrower at base than middle, scattered near middle or basal half of peduncle (rarely more distal), pubescent. Flowers 3.5–4 cm diameter, oriented (horizontally to) ca. 45° above the horizontal plane at anthesis, overall white with a greenish center, the corona white to cream and with or without one obscure purplish zone near middle; floral stipe (pedicel) 1–2 mm (to 2 mm in fruit); hypanthium 10–14 mm diam., sepals 13–17 × 5–6.5 mm, oblong-ovate to triangular-ovate, apically rounded or rounded obtuse with no subapical projection, light green to pale yellow-green abaxially, nearly white adaxially, reflexing at anthesis; petals 9–10.5 × 2.5–3 mm, narrowly ovate to oblong-ovate, white, the apex rounded or subacute; coronal filaments in 2(–3) series, the outer 44–55 in number (N=5 clones, 7 flowers), 8.5–13(–14) mm long, widely spreading, the lower half white or whitish and forming a very shallow bowl or saucer shape, upper half cream or whitish, geniculate and spreading horizontally ca. 180° or slightly reflexed distally, usually lightly or obscurely 1-banded with violet or light purple just below the middle, sometimes without a colored band, the filaments slender and laterally compressed, drying subfiliform, slightly thicker near middle, more or less geniculate, gradually attenuate to a fine apex, roughened-papillate adaxially on upper half distal to bend in the coronal filament; filaments of the inner series (1.5)3–4(–5) mm long, capillary, clavate to widely lobulate apically, erect, borne at base of operculum, as long as or only slightly longer than operculum, pale yellow-green basally with white apex; operculum 2.5–3.0 mm long, 9 mm outside diam., membranous, plicate, green or bright yellow-green except the apex white-fimbriate, and sometimes slightly purplish just beneath apex; nectary trough yellow, raised nectary annulus absent; limen floor flat, pale yellow-green, sometimes purplish red near base of androgynophore, the raised edge fleshy and apically incurved; androgynophore 5.5–7.0 mm, greenish or sometimes lightly flushed with purplish red, the color sometimes extending basally a few mm onto the limen floor; staminal filaments 6–8 mm long, greenish or lightly flushed with purplish red; anthers 4.3–5.2 mm long; ovary 1.8–2.9 × 1.5–2.8 mm, ellipsoid, conspicuously densely white pilose with trichomes (0.5–)1.5–2.0 mm long; styles 6–8 mm long including stigmas, flushed red-purple, stigmas bright green. Fruit a berry, 2.0 × 1.3–1.7 cm, widely ellipsoid to slightly obovoid, estipitate, dark purple at maturity; arils unknown; seeds 3.3–3.9 × 2.2–2.8 mm, widely obovate in outline, chalazal end widely obtuse, micropylar end subacute, dark brown to nearly black, transversely sulcate with 6–8 sulci, the intervening ridges verrucose or rugulose.

Distribution and Ecology:— Passiflora cana is a Peruvian endemic species found at 1870–2100 m elev. mainly in the Utcabamba river valley ( Fig. 3E ) in Amazonas state between Chachapoyas and Leymebamba, and also on other side of the mountain ridge in the Marañon river valley both as road the descends down towards Celendín and across the river at Chota in Cajamarca state ( Fig. 4 ). It is found at temperate forest edges, “dry shrubby vegetation dominated e.g. by Furcraea ” (Weigend 98/392), and moist areas in valleys. In the Leymebamba area it is common to see them climbing branches of nearby trees or bushes on the slopes, dropping their long branches up to 2 m ( Fig. 3D ). The proportions and color of the parts of the flower suggests that the species is adapted to insect-pollination ( Ocampo & Coppens d’Eeckenbrugge 2017), and honey bees and wasps ( Fig. 3C ) have been observed in situ on the open flowers and are potential pollinators in the area. Herbivores are unknown, but the laminar nectaries are often bright yellow, suggesting heliconiine butterfly egg-mimicry ( Gilbert 1982).

Preliminary Conservation status: — Passiflora cana is known from seven collection localities, with an Extent of Occurrence (EOO) of 3340 km 2 and an Area of Occupancy (AOO) of 25 km 2. The species can be assigned the conservation status of Endangered (EN) according to criteria B1a,b(iii) and B2a,b(iii) of the IUCN (2024). The area is under pressure from conversion of forest remnants to agriculture, especially the location in Chota with intensive livestock farming and disturbed areas with Pinus spp.

Phenology: — According to herbarium records and field observations, it has been observed with flowers in March to July and November to December, with fruits in June and November to December.

Etymology:— The name refers to the conspicuous white indumentum on the plant body especially obvious on the stems and buds.

Discussion:— This species of passionflower was first collected by Klaas Kingma and Henk Wouters in 2008 in Peru beside the river at the ruins of Kuelap south of Chachapoyas. It was illustrated in September 2008 in the hobbyist horticultural publication PCN - Passiflora Club Nederland magazine. The species has been cultivated in the Netherlands and Europe since 2008 ( Kingma 2008) and photographs of it are available on the internet.

Passiflora cana clearly belongs to subgenus Decaloba supersection Decaloba based on the transverse ridges on the seeds and by the cernuous growing shoot tip ( Krosnick et al. 2013) and is furthermore assigned to section Decaloba because of the presence of laminar extrafloral nectaries in rows between the main veins and the verrucose or rugulose ridges on the seeds. This placement was recently confirmed in more detail by Acha et al. (2021) in their phylogenomic study of Passiflora section Decaloba . Samples from the isotype specimen at F (Weigend et al. 98/374a) and from the paratypes Gentry et al. 23238 and Vanderplank 2449/18 were genotyped using 2b-RAD sequencing, and they fell together into the southern Andean “South American Clade 7” of 20–25 species of this section, including P. indecora Kunth (1817: 134) and P. telesiphe S. Knapp & Mallet (1998: 162) .

There is a mistake on the label of the type collection (Weigend et al. 98/374a; M. Weigend, pers. comm.). The collector’s note “flowers purplish blue and yellow... herb in moist open areas… “ refers not to this collection but rather to the plant, Burmannia stuebelii Hieron. & Schltr. ( Schlechter 1916: 15), collected immediately before it (Weigend et al. 98/374). The flower of the type was “whitish.”

Other bilobed species of Passiflora native near Chachapoyas include P.ketura , P.callacallensis Skrabal & Weigend in Skrabal et al. (2001: 316), and P. cisnana Harms (1894: 5) . Passiflora cana is easily distinguished from these because of its canescent stems, conspicuously white-pilose leaves with nectary glands, and pilose ovary. Passiflora ketura is merely sparsely to lightly puberulent, or even glabrescent, and the ovary is glabrous. Passiflora callacallensis has glabrous leaves adaxially, a glabrous ovary, and has petiolar nectaries which P. cana lacks. Passiflora cisnana has no extrafloral nectaries of any kind.

Another passionflower with long-pilose bilobed leaves from northern Peru is easily distinguished: P. nana J. M. MacDougal (MacDougal & Esquerre 2020: 161) has tiny flowers (1.5 cm diam., not 3.5–4 cm) and widely angled leaf veins (50–75° not 30–47°), and margins of leaves with longer trichomes (mostly 2 mm long, not less than 1 mm long). One other species from northern Peru with similar flowers is P. santos-llatasii Esquerre (2019: 4) , with white flowers with a white non-banded outer corona and green inner corona, but the plant body is not conspicuously pubescent (trichomes up to 0.3 mm long, not up to 2.2 mm long) and the leaves are often variegated along the veins.

Additional specimens examined (paratypes): — PERU. AMAZONAS: Chachapoyas: road from Balsas to Leymebamba , Sector Hierba Buena , 1971 m, 06°36’16”S, 077°48’53”W, 24 Mar. 2012 (bud, fl.), T. Boza E. & Y. Valdez 2125 ( CUZ [photos seen]) ; ruta Yerbabuena a Leymebamba, Región Amazonas, Distrito La Jalca , 2043 m, 29 Dec. 2013 (bud, fl.), B. Esquerre Ibañez & C. Rojas 001 (PRG-14572!) ; 24 km N of Leimebamba, valley of Río Utcubamba , 1870 m, 06°32’37”S, 077°49’41”W, 17 June 1978 (fr.), A. Gentry, M. Dillon, C. Díaz & J. Aronson 23238 ( MO (2)!, USM!) ; road Chachapoyas to Mendoza, 13 km east of Chachapoyas , 2000 m, 06°13’48”S, 077°43’55”W, 4 June 1998 (bud, fl.), M. Weigend, T. Franke, J. Skrabal, & M. A. Gonzales 98/392 ( M [barcode] 007969!, USM-174229!) . CAJAMARCA: near Chota , 06°31’25.29’’S, 078°40’24.15’’W, 9 July 2023 (bud, fl.), B. Esquerre 231 ( PRG!). Cultivated: cultivated in England from cultivated material from Henk Wouters originally collected in Peru near Kuelap in 2008, NCP 2442 , Sept. 2018, J. Vanderplank 2449/18 ( MO!) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Passiflora cana. A. Habit of flowering branch. B. Flower at node with stipule. C. Leafy branch with immature fruit. D. Seed, with remnant of raphe at right side. A. from Weigend et al. 374a; B–C. from photos taken in field of Boza &Valdez 2125; D. from Gentry et al. 23238. Illustration by Alba Arbelaez.

FIGURE 2. Passiflora cana. A. Habit, leaves with flower, near Chachapoyas. B. Flower, oblique view. C. Flower with transverse section of base. D. Node with leaf removed showing stipule, prophyll of vegetative bud, and base of tendril. E. portion of flower showing outer coronal filaments with papillate distal surface and purple band below middle, with shorter inner corona and operculum near base. F. flower, transverse section showing (from left to right) base of androgynophore, raised edge of limen at nectary margin, yellowish nectary trough, operculum (green with white margin) touching edge of limen, inner coronal filaments, outer coronal filaments with purple band, sepal. G. Flower from population near Chota. H. Leaves with yellow extrafloral nectaries. Photo credits: A, D (Esquerre & Rojas s.n.), E–G (Esquerre s.n.), Boris Esquerre. B–C (Boza & Valdez 2125), Tatiana Boza. H, Ruth Ripley.

FIGURE 3. Passiflora cana. A. Immature fruit. B. Mature purple fruit. C. Wasp on open flower. D. Habit. E. Utcubamba river valley. Photo credits: Boris Esquerre.

FIGURE 4. Distribution with collection points of Passiflora cana in Peru.