Dracontium fuscopunctatum Cornejo, Croat & G. Tello-Hidalgo, 2025

Cornejo, Xavier, Croat, Tom & Tello-Hidalgo, Gabriel, 2025, Dracontium fuscopunctatum (Araceae): A striking new species from southeastern Ecuador, Phytotaxa 687 (2), pp. 295-300 : 296-299

Dracontium fuscopunctatum Cornejo, Croat & G. Tello-Hidalgo sp. nov. ( Figs 1 & 2 ).

New species of Dracontium , similar to Dracontium peruvianum Zhu & Croat (2004: 641) , but the new species D. fuscopunctatum differs from the later by the petioles shorter (1.6 m vs. 2–6 m long), leaf blades with inconspicuous tufts of glandular trichomes adaxially, foliar black glands abaxially (vs. leaf blade tufts of glandular trichomes adaxially and foliar black glands abaxially, both absent), bracteole smaller (ca. 8 × 1.5 cm vs. 15–50 × 2–4 cm), peduncle unarmed (vs. peduncle with spiny projections at upper half), spathe green and abundantly dark punctate at base without (vs. maroon without), flowers with stigma sessile, discoid (vs. flowers with style 1.0– 1.5 mm long, stigma 2–3-lobed).

Type: — ECUADOR. Morona Santiago: canton Macas, comunidad Santa María de Tunants, 2º 08´S 78º 04´W, 1274 m, 13 Sep 2024 (fl), G. Tello-Hidalgo 6 (holotype GUAY!, isotype QCA!).

Tuber hemispherical, 10–15 cm diam., beige, dish-like depressed above, the edges raised, shallowly buried ca. 6 cm depth; tubercles many, rather subglobose, borne on the top of the tuber; roots creamish-white, to 0.5 cm diam.; cataphylls (only the largest seen), papery, the largest surpassing ground level. Leaves solitary; petiole ca. 160 cm long in a flowering size plant, sheathing in the lower ca. 23 cm, rugose and minutely verruculose in the lower part, mottled dark purple, yellowish cream, forming a reptilian pattern, the more slender upper part becoming smooth except for widely scattered warts, predominantly dark purple with yellowish cream streaks; geniculum not apparent, rhachises mottled and verruculate at lower third, light green to slightly purplish green, channeled and sharply 2- costate adaxially; mature blade spreading horizontally, 80–100 cm diam., thinly coriaceous, not variegated, abundantly glandular (in fresh material), with scattered tufts with glandular trichomes, semiglossy and deep-green adaxially, with scattered raised black glands and paler-green abaxially; lamina decompound, narrowly decurrent at distal third to two thirds of rhachises; fenestrations not observed; main divisions of all three primary rhachises themselves divided into rather few confluent segments with acuminate to caudate-acuminate apex, with the larger leaflets with lateral lobes on one or two sides; venation sulcate adaxially, prominent and papillose-glandular (in fresh material) abaxially; middle division twice trichotomously branched; segments mostly confluent; smaller broadly obtuse and decurrent acuminate to sharply acuminate segments present at base; lateral divisions often dichotomously branched. Inflorescences one or two, simultaneously appearing after a single leaf; bracteole lanceolate, papery-membranous, ca. 8 × 1.5 cm, inserted at inner base of peduncle; peduncle similar to but smaller than the petiole, about 1.0– 1.3 m long, about 2 cm thick at midpoint, with black lenticels or verrucae and short streaks at distal part; spathe ca. 35 cm long, perfectly erect, shortlyacuminate, narrowly spindle-shaped in outline, about 7 cm wide at widest point about 11 cm from its base, convolute at base, then narrowly gaping to half its length, then the apex convolute again and occupying the entire distal half to two thirds of the spathe, matt green with purplish veins outside to purplish at distal two thirds, longitudinally ca. 8-faintly ridged throughout, matt in side view, the exterior dorsal basal part dark punctate intergrading to short dark streaks, with abundant shortly linear epidermal sclereids throughout; interior light green, purplish at apex; interior of spathe base light green, this zone somewhat exceeding spadix on dorsal side, with abundant uniseriate white trichomes surrounding stipe, glandular-papillose behind spadix, scattered tufts with glandular trichomes distally within; spadix stipitate for 10–13 mm (the stipe obliquely inserted, abundantly glandular and with scattered lenticels), subcylindric, 6 cm long, 1.7 cm diam. at midpoint, purplish black (at male anthesis/early fruit); florets 5-tepalate, tepals with abundant shortly linear, white raphides; stamens 7, in one whorl, filaments ca. 1 mm, the anthers ca. 1.5 mm, granulose, exceeding tepals at male anthesis; ovary subconical, ca. 2.5 × 1.5–2.0 mm, with short raphides, 1-locular; style very short at anthesis, accrescent in fruit, stigma disciform, glandular, with a central depression, very young fruits at postanthesis emerging as protruding obtuse to subconical bumps; immature fruit 8 mm diam., subglobose, irregularly truncate-depressed at apex, deep green, glossy, glandular surface, crowned by a black, thick style, 1.0– 1.5 mm length, mature fruit and seed not seen.

Discussion: —By the large size of erect spathe, Dracontium fuscopunctatum may resemble D. peruvianum from Amazonia of Peru and adjacent Brazil. However, D. fuscopunctatum differs from the latter by tuber with a depressed dish-like top with thickened raised margins, from which the tubercles are produced and hold (vs. tuber flat on top and without thickened raised margins, producing tubercles around the periphery), petioles shorter and thinner, without spiny projections (ca. 1.6 m × 2 cm vs. petioles 2–6 m × 3.5–6.0 cm, usually with spiny projections mainly at distal half in D. peruvianum ), leaves with terminal subdivisions forked into two segments (vs. leaves with terminal subdivisions never forked into two segments), blades with tertiary veins sulcate above (vs. blades with tertiary veins obscure above), spathe dark punctate at base without, white-tomentose around stipe only, glabrous throughout within (vs. spathe velutinous within, see original diagnosis), peduncle without spiny projections (vs. peduncle with spiny projections, mainly at distal part), and flowers without styles and stigma disciform (vs. flowers with styles, those 1.0– 1.5 mm length, stigma 2–3-lobed). Furthermore, the leaf blades with inconspicuous scattered tufts with glandular trichomes above and prominent black glands beneath that present D. fuscopunctatum are not known to occur in D. peruvianum . The dish-like depressed top of the tuber of Dracontium fuscopunctatum at interior produces many tubercles that are hold within by the thickened raised edges.

Etymology: —The epithet refers to the dark punctate exterior dorsal basal part of spathe.

Common name: —Rolaquimba de monte, that means the wild Rolaquimba.

Uses: —The immature tender leaves of Dracontium fuscopunctatum are said to be edible, those are occasionally prepared in traditional Amazonian dishes as the Ayampaco, that is composed of small pieces of chicken, palmheart, rolaquimba`s chopped leaf blades, onions, and cassava, all wrapped within a large leaf blade of bijao or platanillo.

Habitat and distribution: — Dracontium fuscopunctatum is known from the Santa María de Tunants an indigenous shuar community, that is located ca. 15 N from Macas and ca. 20 km East of Sangay National Park, in southeastern Ecuador. The area is characterized by secondary habitats and some small chacra crops nearby evergreen lower montane forest. Currently, Dracontium fuscopunctatum it is known from one locality only, the narrow pattern of distribution of this new species is restricted to the Amotape-Huancabamba biogeographic zone ( Weigend 2002, 2004), south of the Girón-Paute dry valley in southern Ecuador ( Jørgensen et al. 1999).

Phenology: —Flowering material was collected in September; fruiting material was observed in October and November. There are no existing observations on flower pollination or fruit dispersal.

Conservation status: — Dracontium fuscopunctatum is uncommon in the type locality: Gabriel Tello-Hidalgo has only found a total of three individuals naturally growing intermixed at the interior of a coffee chakra crop; it might grow well also in the adjacent disturbed open habitats with remains of native floristic elements nearby forests. Based on the very small area of occurrence (10 km 2), an extent of occurrence of 10 km 2, and that D. fuscopunctatum grows in cultivated areas and secondary habitats that are pressured by the risk of crop expansion and land use conversion in near future, we assign a provisional category of Endangered [EN B2a(iv)], following the IUCN (2022) criteria.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Dracontium fuscopunctatum. A, Plant habit in chakra habitat. B, Spreading leaves, note the epithelial glandular surface of blade at upper right square and tufts with glandular trichomes at lower right square. C, Leaf blade, and papillose glandular vein at upper right rectangle, abaxial views. D, Pedicel: reptilian pattern (left) and longitudinal section displaying aerenchymatous cells (right). E, Petiole base and two peduncle of inflorescences. F, Pot like structure with raised edges on tuber top, holding ground, many young tubercles, and rooting. Photos by Gabriel Tello-Hidalgo, from the type collection.

FIGURE 2. Dracontium fuscopunctatum. A, Two leafy plants growing together and two erect inflorescences. B, Spathe, lateral view. C, Lower half of spathe displaying apex of spadix at the interior, frontal view. D, Lower half of spathe and distal portion of peduncle, lateral view. E, Flowers from middle part of spadix in male anthesis. F, Dark punctuations at base of spathe. G, Spadix at male anthesis and sectioned spathe. H, Young infructescence on peduncle, partial view. I, Close up of immature fruits. Photos by Gabriel Tello-Hidalgo, from the type collection.