Grias capparidastroides Cornejo, 2025

Cornejo, Xavier & Prance, Ghillean T., 2025, Three new species of Grias (Lecythidaceae) from Colombia and Ecuador, Phytotaxa 684 (2), pp. 289-297 : 290-292

1. Grias capparidastroides Cornejo , sp. nov. ( Fig. 1 )

New species of Grias , similar to G. multinervia Cuatrec. (1951: 97) , but differs by the distinctively elongate fruiting pedicels (10–11 cm long vs. 2.5–3.2 cm long), fewer pairs of lateral veins (40–50 vs. ca. 86), divergent basal lateral veins (vs. patent), and the presence of reticulate, fourth-order veinlets (vs. fourth-order veinlets plane and difficult to see).

Type: — COLOMBIA. Cauca: Municipio López de Micay, camino vereda El Porvenir, Puente Silva, 3°01′48¨ N 77°16′06 ¨W, 100 m, 26 Jul 1988 (fr), J. Rubiano 221 (holotype: COL-00310692!).

Pachycaulous, unbranched, understory trees, ca. 8 m tall, the trunk cylindrical. Bark rough, brown, beige and creamish white, abundantly lenticellate, the lenticels and circular scars 1.5–3.5 mm in diam. Mature leaves clustered at apices of trunk or stems; petioles absent or scarcely developed, the midrib or short petiole hemispherical to suborbicular in cross-section at base of leaf; laminas narrowly oblanceolate, 70–130 × 13–20 cm, coriaceous, punctate on abaxial surface, glabrous, the base tapering, decurrent, the margins entire, the apex acuminate; the midrib prominent adaxially, longitudinally multi-sulcate abaxially when dry, venation brochidodromous, the secondary veins 40–50 pairs, the tertiary veins weakly percurrent, the higher order venation reticulate. Inflorescences cauline. Flower buds and mature flowers unknown. Fruiting pedicel 10–11 × 0.3–0.5 cm, with abundant prominent lenticels, circular to elliptical, 0.5–1.5 mm in diam.; fruit ellipsoid, ca. 5.5–7 × 3 cm, brown, the base cuneate to obtuse, the apex truncate, the sepals not seen; mesocarp and endocarp unknown.

Discussion: — Grias capparidastroides is known from only one mounted specimen, here designated as the type (from COL), which is composed of two detached leaves and two fruits with pedicels, one of which is attached to a piece of bark. Although this specimen, which lacks a terminal piece of stem and flowers, may be judged as an incomplete collection, the unusually elongate pedicels (10–11 cm long) and bark surface that is brown, beige and white with lenticels and circular scars 1.5–3.5 mm in diam., are sufficient characters to recognize this as a very distinct species. The unusually elongate fruiting pedicels of Grias capparidastroides is a unique and conspicuous character in the genus. Pedicels up to 7 cm long occur in some populations of Grias peruviana Miers (I874: 301) s.l., but that species does not have such large lenticels nor the conspicuous circular scars 1.5–3.5 mm long near the attachment of the pedicels that are so characteristic of G. capparidastroides . In addition, on western side of Andes the leaf blades of G. peruviana have fewer (18–40) pairs of lateral veins. Grias capparidastroides occurs a few kilometers from Caliche, on the right margin of Río Micay, which is also the type locality of G. multinervia ; however, these two species are quite distinct by the differences previously discussed and described in the diagnosis.

The case of Grias capparidastroides is similar to that of Pentagonia chocoensis Cornejo (2014: 2) , since it is a new species of tree that was collected several decades ago from the Chocó bioregion and is only known from an incomplete unicate in the COL herbarium that provides enough taxonomic information to be recognized as a distinctive species, yet is still only known from the type collection.

Etymology: —The epithet capparidastroides is from Capparidastrum (DC.) Hutch. (1967: 310) , a genus of neotropical Capparaceae Juss. (1789: 242) , and the Latin suffix -oīdēs, which means resemblance and refers to the apparent similarity of the fruits of this taxonomic novelty that hang down from elongate pedicels and resemble those of Capparidastrum .

Common names: —Unknown.

Habitat and distribution: —An understory tree, known only from the type locality, in the lowlands of Municipio López de Micay, 100 m, Department of Cauca, on the Chocoan Pacific coast of Colombia.

Phenology: — Fruiting specimens have been collected in late July.

Conservation status: — Grias capparidastroides is known only from the type locality. As the area of occupancy of the species is less than 100 km 2, and because no other specimen of this species has been gathered or found in herbaria since the type was collected in 1988, it is suggested that this new species be assigned the Critically Endangered (CR) status following the IUCN criterion B1 ( IUCN 2022).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Grias capparidastroides. A. Unicate, Rubiano 221, the COL holotype; B. Reticulate fourth-order veinlets, close up in abaxial view; C. Two long-pedicelled fruits; D. Base of fruiting pedicel and attached bark, note the brown, beige, and creamish-white color of the bark and some circular scars; E. Submarginal brochidodromous, secondary veins, and weakly percurrent tertiaries, abaxial view. (A–E, based on Rubiano 221, the type). Photos by Xavier Cornejo.