LEAF ANATOMY DISTINGUISHES THE AYUASCA LIANAS “CAUPURI” AND “TUCUNACÁ” (BANISTERIOPSIS CAAPI, MALPIGHIACEAE)

Tiago Alencar de Araújo1, Juliana Menezes dos Passos1, Camila Soares Braga Behrens1,3, Christopher William Fagg1,3, Julia Sonsin Oliveira1, Regina Célia de Oliveira1,3, Sueli Maria Gomes1,3

1Departamento de Botânica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas; 2Faculdade de Ceilândia; 3Programa de Pós-Graduação em Botânica; Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil. [email protected]

As part of a larger project, which aims to reevaluate the circumscription of Banisteriopsis caapi (Spruce ex Griseb.) C.V. Morton (Malpighiaceae Juss.), samples of four ethnotypes of the vine, recognized by members of Hoasca religions, were analyzed for leaf anatomy. Fully expanded leaves were fixed, accompanied by voucher specimens. Histological sections of the petiole and leaf blades were obtained and studied under a light microscope. Leaf anatomical characters resulted in the identification of two plant groups, the first formed by the Caupuri liana and the other by lianas Mystery, Ourinho, and Tucunacá (MOT group). In Caupuri, the petiole has no wings, no druses, there are brachysclereids and idioblasts with raphides in the cortex and the medulla, the vascular bundle is almost closed, and the phloem has no fibers. In MOT group, the petiole is winged, with abundant druses in the cortex and medulla, no brachysclereids or raphides, the vascular bundle is very open and the phloem has fibers with reduced lumen. The leaf blade in Caupuri has a midrib with five vascular bundles, mesophyll with two layers of palisade parenchyma, whose cells are almost as high as wide, while in the MOT group there is only one vascular bundle in the midrib, one palisade parenchyma layer with cells 3-4 times higher than wide. These differences help the taxonomic discussion of B. caapi and show that there is a relationship between the ethnotypes recognized and formal science. (FAPDF 0193.000881/2015)

Keywords: santo daime, Banisteriopsis, Malpighiaceae, taxonomy