Stellaria macrophylla (Muschl.) Montesinos & Borsch, 2023

Montesinos-Tubée, Daniel B. & Borsch, Thomas, 2023, Molecular phylogenetics and morphology reveal the Plettkea lineage including several members of Arenaria and Pycnophyllopsis to be a clade of 21 South American species nested within Stellaria (Caryophyllaceae, Alsineae), Willdenowia 53 (3), pp. 115-148 : 135

11. Stellaria macrophylla (Muschl.) Montesinos & Borsch , comb. nov.

≡ Pycnophyllum macrophyllum Muschl. in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 45: 458. 1911 ≡ Plettkea macrophylla (Muschl.) Mattf. in Schriften Vereins Naturk. Unterweser, n.s., 7: reprint p. 18 (22). 1934 ≡ Pycnophyllopsis macrophylla (Muschl.) Molinari in Polish Bot. J. 61: 276. 2016.

– Lectotype (designated by Molinari-Novoa 2016: 276): Peru, Áncash, Cordillera Blanca , 4500 m, 14 May 1903, A. Weberbauer 2975 ( MOL00000509 !) .

Morphological description — See Timaná (2005).

Distribution — Huascarán National Park in Áncash department, central Peru, at altitudes of 4500–4800 m ( Timaná 2017).

Notes — Muschler (1911: 458) described Pycnophyllum macrophyllum based on the leaf shape and few relevant flowers characters. Molinari-Novoa (2016) simply transferred the species to Pycnophyllopsis referring to Timaná (2005) who recognized Pycnophyllopsis s.l. (including Plettkea ) as distinct from Pycnophyllum without any own analysis of plant material. According to Timaná (2017), Stellaria macrophylla differs from S. cryptantha in the number of floral parts: S. macrophylla is pentamerous with three free styles while S. cryptantha a tetramerous species with two free styles. In addition, the leaves of S. macrophylla are slightly narrower toward the apex, where in S. cryptantha these are more triangular. The only collection known is the type specimen at MOL. This specimen has no seeds which was also confirmed by physical examination (G. Tello, Lima, pers. comm.). Therefore, it is unclear from where Muschler took the information on seeds, which does not even correspond to specimens of the Plettkea clade and therefore could be wrong.