Hiraea reclinata Jacq.

Anderson, C., 2016, Circumscription and nomenclature of Hiraea barclayana, H. reclinata, and H. ternifolia (Malpighiaceae), and of seven species misassigned to them, Blumea 61 (2), pp. 125-146 : 133-135

4. Hiraea reclinata Jacq. — Fig. 4; Map 3 , 6 , 7

Hiraea reclinata Jacq. (1760) 4, 21, non Hiraea reclinata Blanco (1837) . — Triopterys reclinata (Jacq) .Cav. (1790) 431. — Malpighia reclinata (Jacq) . Colla (1824) 85. — Type: H.H. Smith 1508 (neo, here designated MICH; isoneo MO, NY, UC, US), Colombia, Magdalena, near Masinga, 250 ft, 22 Mar. [1898–1899].

Malpighia obovata Kunth (1822 ‘1821’) 146. — Hiraea kunthiana A.Juss. (1840) 258, nom. superfl. — Hiraea obovata (Kunth) Nied. (1906) 7, non Hiraea obovata Huber (1902) . — Hiraea obovata (Kunth) Nied.var. latifolia Nied. (1906) 7, nom. superfl. — Hiraea obovata (Kunth) Nied. var. latifolia Nied. forma eglandulosa Nied. (1906) 7, nom. superfl. — Type: Humboldt & Bonpland s.n. (holo P-HBK,image), Colombia, Antioquia,[Puerto] Nares.

Hiraea obovata (Kunth) Nied. var. latifolia forma glandulifera Nied. (1906) 7. — Type: Pittier 9882 [J.D. Smith 6975] (lecto,here designated US;isolecto G), Costa Rica, Puntarenas, sur les bords du Río Coto, Mar./ Apr. 1896.

Hiraea obovata (Kunth) Nied.var. angustifolia Nied.(1906) 7. — Type: Tonduz 13955 (lecto, here designated US; isolecto K), Costa Rica, Guanacaste, dans les buissons à Nicoya , Jan. 1900.

Hiraea borealis Nied. (1906) 5. — Hiraea borealis Nied. var. eglandulosa Nied.(1906) 6, nom.superfl. — Type: Gaumer 66 (holo B†;lecto, here designated K), Honduras, Islas de la Bahía,‘Island of Ruatan’ [Roatán],[1885].

Hiraea borealis Nied. var. glandulifera Nied. (1906) 6. — Type: Gaumer 67 (holo B†; lecto, here designated GH), Mexico, Quintana Roo, Cozumel Island , 20 Apr. 1885. [The duplicate at K has eglandular sepals.]

Hiraea purpusii Brandegee (1922) 184. — Type: Purpus 8731 (holo UC-214375;iso GH, MO, NY,UC, US), Mexico, Veracruz, Camerón , Apr. 1922.

Woody vine to 25 m or scandent shrub or treelet to 4(–7) m; stems densely sericeous when young, becoming glabrous. Leaves opposite. Laminas of the larger leaves 6–25.5 by 3–12 cm, narrowly to broadly elliptical or obovate, apex mucronate or emarginate-mucronate to apiculate (occasionally acuminate), base truncate in smaller leaves to cordate and auriculate in larger ones, adaxially densely loosely sericeous when very young, soon glabrescent to glabrous, abaxially sericeous, usually sparsely so, when young, and soon glabrescent to glabrous but often hairs retained on and along the costa and secondary veins, entirely glabrous in oldest laminas, hairs 0.3–1(–2) mm long, sessile or subsessile, straight or wavy; margin without glands or sometimes with a few scattered glands c. 0.2 mm diam in distal 1/3 or only near apex; costa and secondary veins slightly or not impressed adaxially, prominent abaxially. Petioles 4–18 by 1.5–2.5 mm, densely sericeous, with a pair of glands at apex, each gland 0.6–1.5(–1.8) mm long, or rarely glands absent. Stipules 2–4.6 mm long, borne at middle to basal 1/4 of petiole, in young leaves or on very short petioles sometimes nearer the base. Inflorescences solitary (rarely 2) axillary ternate cymes of 4-flowered umbels; umbel without a gland in the centre; inflorescence axis 0–3(–5) mm long, bracts 1.5–2.5 mm long and wide; lateral peduncles borne on axes 0.5–2.5 mm long, subtended by bracts 1.2–2 mm long and wide; peduncles 0.5–8(–11) mm long; bracts and bracteoles subtending pedicels 1.2–1.5(–2) mm long and wide; pedicels (7–)9–29 by c. 0.3 mm, densely covered with sessile to T-shaped hairs (stalk to 0.05 mm); axes and abaxial surface of bracts and bracteoles densely sericeous. On leafless branches inflorescences usually crowded and condensed, sessile to subsessile, pedicels 7–10 mm long. Sepals 2–2.5 by 1.8–2 mm, triangular, adaxially glabrous, abaxially sericeous; anterior sepal eglandular, the lateral four biglandular, glands 1.5–2 mm long, or all sepals eglandular, or rarely all sepals glandular (or the anterior sepal with only one gland). Petals yellow, glabrous; lateral petals with the claw 2–2.5 mm long, limb 6–7(–8) mm long and wide, orbicular, margin of anterior-lateral petals subentire, margin of posterior-lateral petals subentire or minutely and irregularly denticulate, teeth to 0.1(–0.2) mm long; posterior petal with the claw (2.2–) 2.5–3 mm long and thicker than that of lateral petals, limb 5.5–6 mm long and wide, orbicular, margin irregularly denticulate-fimbriate (sometimes coarsely), teeth/fimbriae to 0.5 mm long, longest at apex, diminishing toward base, occasionally gland-tipped. Stamens glabrous, filaments basally connate. Stamen opposite anterior sepal: filament 3.5–4.5 mm long, anther 1.1–1.3 mm long; stamens opposite anterior-lateral petals: filaments 3–3.5 mm long, anthers 0.5–0.7(–0.9) mm long; stamens opposite anterior-lateral sepals: filaments 3–3.7 mm long, anthers 0.6–1.3 mm long; stamens opposite posterior-lateral petals: filaments 2–2.8 mm long, anthers 0.5–0.8(–1) mm long; stamens opposite posterior-lateral sepals: filaments 3–4 mm long, anthers 0.7–1 mm long; stamen opposite posterior petal: filament 2–2.5 mm long, anther 0.5–0.7 mm long. Styles incurved, glabrous; anterior style 3.2–4.2 by 0.4–0.5 mm, apex extended into a spur (0.05–) 0.2–0.3 mm long; posterior styles (3–)3.5–4.2 by 0.4–0.5 mm, apex extended into a spur (0.05–) 0.1–0.2 mm long. Ovary 1.2–1.5 mm long, densely villous. Samara butterfly-shaped; lateral wings (1.5–)2.5–3.3 by 1.5–2.3 cm; dorsal wing or crest 0.2–4.5 mm high, subentire or erose or coarsely dentate; nut subspherical, 3.5–4.5 mm diam, areole 1.5–2 mm diam. Embryo subspherical to spherical, 3.6–4.2 mm diam.

Distribution — Western and southern Mexico, Central America, northern Colombia.

Habitat & Phenology — In wet and dry primary and secondary forest, often along rivers and streams, also in thickets and scrub; sea level to 860(–1000) m; collected in flower and fruit mostly from January through June, a few flowering collections from September to November.

Notes — Hiraea reclinata is greatly variable throughout its diverse habitats and broad range, from southern Mexico to northern Colombia. Typical plants have leaves with short petioles and elliptical to obovate, glabrous laminas with a cordate to auriculate base and a mucronate apex. The petiole bears a pair of glands at or near the apex, but occasionally the glands are absent, even among some leaves of the same branch. The stipules are usually borne at the middle to basal 1/4 of the petiole. The laminas of emergent leaves bear straight to wavy hairs that are mostly sessile or subsessile and are usually soon shed, more gradually abaxially than adaxially and sometimes patchily, but hairs are often retained on and along the costa and the proximal secondary veins abaxially. Whereas the adaxial vesture is initially dense, usually even the youngest leaves are abaxially only sparsely pubescent, except for the major veins and along the margins. Occasionally, the vesture is more tardily shed, and mature laminas are thinly and/or patchily sericeous (the epidermis always visible) abaxially or rarely on both surfaces(e.g., J.D. Smith 2547, Escuintla, Guatemala; Matuda 2181, Chiapas, Mexico).

The inflorescence is a single ternate cyme of 4-flowered umbels, which is commonly subsessile, but may be borne on an axis to 5 mm long. The peduncles bearing the umbels also are mostly short but occasionally measure 10 mm or more.

Less variation is shown in the flowers, except in the ornamentation of the styles. In most flowers the styles bear a pronounced spur 0.2–0.3 mm long, that of the anterior is usually longer than those of the posterior styles; however, occasionally the spur is barely expressed and only c. 0.05 mm long.

Niedenzu (1906) followed Jussieu (1840, 1843) and Grisebach (1860), who applied the name H. reclinata to collections from Trinidad and Tobago that belong to H. hookeriana , a species with distinctive bullate leaves and abaxial vesture composed of mostly T-shaped hairs. In his monograph of the family, Niedenzu (1928) changed his interpretation by adding three collections from Colombia: Schlim 524 ( H. transiens ) and H.H. Smith 1515, 1516 ( H. reclinata ). He used the name H. obovata for collections from Central America now assigned to H. reclinata and erected H. borealis to accommodate two Gaumer collections, from Roatán Island (Islas de la Bahía, Honduras) and Cozumel Island (Quintana Roo, Mexico). Hiraea borealis was subsequently often applied to specimens of H. reclinata from Mexico. A neotype is chosen here for H. reclinata , because no authentic material was found. Specimens of the neotype collection are all labelled as dating from March; the NY duplicate also carries the perforated collection tag with the years ‘1898–99’. An additional specimen at NY labelled H.H. Smith 1508 is dated as ‘May 30’ and not part of the neotype gathering. See Allen (1904) and Ayers & Boufford (1988) for details of H.H. Smith’s collecting activities in Colombia.

Niedenzu (1906) cited two syntypes for H. obovata var. angustifolia , J.D. Smith 2554 from Guatemala and Tonduz 13955 from Costa Rica. Because his variety is defined by leaf and calyx characters, the duplicate of Tonduz 13955 at US is here designated as lectotype. Niedenzu noted that the Guatemalan specimen he saw (now destroyed) lacked leaves.

Figures

Map 3 Distribution of Hiraea barclayana Benth.(■) in Colombia and Venezuela and H. reclinata Jacq. (●) in Colombia.

Map 6 Distribution of Hiraea reclinata Jacq. in Mexico.

Map 7 Distribution of Hiraea reclinata Jacq. in Central America.