Passiflora skiantha Huber (1906: 591)

Kuethe, J. R., Cornejo, Xavier, Garzón-Suárez, Henry X., Jiménez, Marco M., Wettges, Martin, Magdalena, Carlos, Mejía-Pazos, Nicanor, Flores, Juan Carlos Espín & Decoux, Jose, 2025, Passionflower trees of Ecuador: revising the presence of Passiflora subg. Astrophea (Passifloraceae) and including resolution to the P. putumayensis and P. macrophylla taxonomic complexes, Phytotaxa 697 (2), pp. 147-165 : 164

10. Passiflora skiantha Huber (1906: 591) ( Figure 7b )

Type:— PERU. Loreto: Vargas Guerra region, Cerro de Canchahuayo, 07°01’34”S 75°04’21”W, 3 November 1898 (fl.), D. Huber 1424 (holotype: MO 3033909).

Notes:—There are two species of extremely close affinity, Passiflora skiantha and P. cauliflora Harms (1907: 185) , both of which share a similar distribution as well as much vegetative and floral traits. Difference between these species is limited to the length of the hypanthium and the vestiture of the ovary, the former of which shown to be somewhat variable in nature. The glabrous ovary, however, distinctly identified the Ecuadorean accessions as belonging to P. skiantha , opposed to P. cauliflora which has a pubescent ovary and shorter hypanthium. Being Amazonian in distribution, P. skiantha is found in the eastern tropical wet lowlands of Ecuador with populations sighted in Napo, Pastaza and Orellana at elevations not exceeding 350 m above sea level. A noticeable population was seen by the authorial team nearby Archidona and Ahuano, where it grows in dense riparian forest with the flowers seen only in the shady understory close to the ground. The leaves and upper portions of the plant are rarely sighted, mostly due to its robust habit that dominates the forest canopy.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Overview of the Ecuadorean Astrophea. All taken within Ecuador.A) P. trochlearis (by Juan C. Espín F.); B) P. skiantha (by Dawson White); C) P. tina (by Xavier Cornejo); D) P. tessmannii (by Henry Garzón-Suarez); E) P. pyrrhantha (by Xavier Cornejo); F) P. spinosa (by Sebastián Vizcarra).