A. Hay, 1988 25 Anaphyllopsis: A New Neotropical Genus of Araceae-Lasieae Alistair Hay Department of Plant Sciences South Parks Road Oxford England During the course of revising the spe­ phyllous (under normal conditions of cies of Cyrtosperma in the Far East, it growth) in C. americanum, whereas in became necessary to review generic limits Dracontioides it is rhizomatous and pol­ in the tribe Lasieae sensu Engler ( 1911 ) as phyllous, and in Dracontium it is cormous amended by Bogner ( 1973 ). It has become and monophyllous. apparent that the pantropical Cyrtosperma It is proposed here that a new genus, circumscribed by Engler (loc. cit.) is Anaphyllopsis, be erected as an alternative heterogeneous. to "lumping" Dracontium, Dracontioides Three species of Cyrtosperma have and C. americanum. Were the latter been recognized for the New World. Two course to be adopted, the resulting broad of these belong in extant genera--C. generic concept of Dracontium would be wurdackii Bunting (Urospatba) and C. inconsistent with the existing rather nar­ spruceanum (Schott) Engler (Dra­ row limits between other genera of the contium). The necessary new combina­ Lasieae such as Podolasia, Urospatba, tions are to be made elsewhere, in a Lasia and Cyrtosperma s.s. forthcoming revision of Cyrtosperma. The Two new species of Anapbyllopsis are third species, C. americanum Engler, can­ described, both, sadly, from single frag­ not be fitted into any presently recognised mentary collections. Their leaf blades genus. however, are so distinctive as to justify drawing attention to these plants as repre­ Subtribal and generic limits in the sentatives of new and apparently rare Lasieae are also to be dealt with elsewhere. species. However, the species in question differs from Cyrtosperma s.S. in the presence of both prophylls and cataphylls on the Anapbyllopsis A. Hay, gen. nov. rhizome, and in having fenestrate foliage. Herbae terrestres paludosae; caudex The absence of cataphylls may be used as a hypogaeus rhizomatosus, prophyllis diagnostic character for the subtribe La­ cataphyllis euphyllisque praeditus, siinae which includes the. Far Eastern orthotropus; folii lamina fenestrata species of Cyrtosperma and in which vel pinnata; spatha spiraliter torta; fenestrate leaves are unknown. Fenestrate flores hermaphroditi tepalati; sem­ leaves are present however, in Dracontioi­ des and Dracontium. Cyrtosperma ina campylotropa albuminosa; testa americanum appears to be more closely crassa ornata. related to Dracontioides and Dracontium, Solitary herbs with subterranean but differs from both in the form of the orthotropic rhizomes (where spathe which is spirally twisted rather like known) bearing prophylls, cata­ that of the Indian Anapbyllum wigbtii phylls and euphylls; leaves generally Schott in C. americanum, and hood­ solitary with unarmed tubercular to forming to erect in the other genera. Of the smooth often mottled petioles; lami­ vegetative characteristics, the stem is nas dissected by fenestration or rhizomatous and the sympodium mono- ternate with fenestrate segments or 26 AROIDEANA, Vol. 11, No. 1 simply pinnate; inflorescence termi­ Stem unknown; leaf solitary; petiole nal, solitary, on long peduncles simi­ mottled, warty, ca. 1.5 m long, ca .1 lar to the petioles; spathe mem­ cm diam. (dry); lamina pinnate; branaceous, papery when dry, lowermost leaflets (= posterior marcescent, convolute towards the lobes) stalked for ca. 3 cm, their base, spirally twisted in the mid and blades ca. 30 cm long, 11cm wide, upper part; spadix with a stipe oblong-ovate, more or less symmet­ adnate for most of its length to the rical, with the tips acuminate for ca. spathe; flowers hermaphrodite 2 cm; primary lateral veins (of throughout the length of the spadix, leaflets) pinnate, ca. 12 on each side tepalate, maturing (like the fruits) in of the midrib, brochidodromous, a basipetal sequence; perianth and collected into a more or less undu­ androecium tetramerous; stamens lating sub-marginal vein, not promi­ with short, strap-like filaments and nent below (in dry state ); secondary extrorse bilocular anthers opening venation reticulate, faint; anterior by apical pore-like slits; pollen rachis ca. 13 cm long, with two pairs ovoid, monosukate, with more or of opposite leaflets similar to basal less smooth exine; ovary superior, pair but progressively smaller, ter­ unilocular, uni-or biovulate with minating in an incompletely divided basal placentation; stigma not nec­ pair of segments; peduncle smooth tariferous; fruit ovoid to obpyrami­ otherwise similar to, and winding dal, indehiscent; seed campylotro­ round the petiole; spathe membra­ pous, pachychalazal, albuminous; nous and papery (dry), ca. 16 cm seed-coat thick, verruculose to long, ca. 7 cm wide at widest, deeply channelled. Type species: A. ovate-Ian ceo late (flattened), convo­ americana (Engler) A. Hay: (ba­ lute in the lower quarter, spirally sionym Cyrtosperma americanum twisted in the upper 2/3 greenish Engler). Distribution: Tropical South outside, reddish brown within; spa­ America - Venezuela, Surinam, dix 2.3 cm long, 8 mm diam., French Guiana and Brazil. Widely stipitate for ca. 6 mm with the stipe dispersed, the collecting sites of the adnate to the spathe; flowers tetra­ three species (Fig. 4.) fall within merous; ovary unilocular; ovules three of the Pleistocene forest refu­ two; stigma raised for ca. 1 mm on a gia proposed by Prance ( 1982). conical style; fruit and seed un­ known, Fig. 1. Type: Venezuela, Territorio Amazonas, Rio Negro, Key to species of Anapbyllopsis near the Brazilian border around 1. Lamina pinnater; leaflets ovate, petio­ Piedra de Cucuy (approx. 66 51" W; lulate . A. pinnata 1 13" N), 2 Nov. 1968,]. G. Wessels 1. Anterior lobe pinnatifid, or if inter­ Boer 2387 (U! holotype). Distribu­ preted as pinnate then the leaflets sessile tion: known only from the type with broad insertions . 2 collection from tropical rain forest 2. Lateral segments of anterior lobe with on granitic soil; altitude 100-350 m. retuse to bifurcate apices . Anaphyllopsis americana (Engler) . A. americana A. Hay, comb. nov. 2. Lateral segments of anterior lobe with Cyrtosperma americanum Engler in rounded apices. A. cururuana Martius, Fl. Bras. 3,2 (8178) 117, t. 22 & in DC, Monog. Phanerogam. 2 (1879) 272 & Anapbyllopsis pinnata A. Hay, sp. in Pflanzenr. 48 (IV. 23C)(1911) 22, fig. 8; nov. Pulle Enum. Vasco PI. Suriname ( 1906) 78; A ceteribus speciebus Anaphyllopsidis Jonker-Verhoef & Jonker in Acta Bot. folio veriter pinnato differt. Neerl. 15 (1966) 130. Type: French Gui- A. Hay, 1988 27 'A Fig. l. A. americana mottled green, grey and brown, weakly pustular, unarmed, spongy, ana, Leprieur 152 (P! lectotype, selected conspicuously geniculate at apex; here; US!) sheath very short, rarely to 8 cm, Herb to 1.5 m tall; rhizome straight, membranous; lamina dark green, subterranean, orthotropic, brittle, glossy above, dull below, sagittate; ca. 2-3 cm diam., to ca. 15 cm long anterior lobe pinnatisect by fenes­ with few scattered roots (in anero­ tration (juvenile expanded leaves bic conditions); or short with copi­ sometimes remaining fenestrate ), ous roots (aerobic conditions); leaf lateral segments opposite, separated solitary, rarely to three together; to near midrib, unicostate, with petiole to l.5 m long (usually less), submarginal veins, costae divided 28 AROIDEANA, Vol. 11, No.1 and running to the extremities of the ca. 6cm wide at widest point, retuse or bifurcate tips; terminal lanceolate, convolute below, segment rhomboid; posterior lobes twisted above, erect, pale greenish­ naked in the sinus for ca. 5 cm, brown to reddish outside, ivory with entire on the posterior side, more or purpose margins below within; spa­ less pedately divided by fenestration dix on a stipe completely adnate to on the anterior side; inflorescence the spathe and thus displaced at an solitary; rarely with an inflorescence angle to the peduncle, ca. 2.5 cm and infructescence present together long, ca. 7 mm wide; flowers tetra­ on one plant; peduncle slightly merous, ovary unilocular; stigma shorter than and similar to the dry, button-like, very small; ovule petiole, present with leaf; spathe solitary, with basal placentation; (and spadix) drying black and turn­ fruit obpyramidal, ca. 1 X 1 cm, ing black in alcohol, to 18. cm long, flat-topped and closely spaced form- Fig. 2. A. pinnata A. Hay, 1988 29 ing channels in between, Fig. 2. the structure of the seed. Engler's illustra­ Distribution: Surinam and French tion (loc. cit.) gives the impression of a Guiana; growing in lowland swamp thin testa surrounding a thick runinate forest, swamp forest regrowth, endosperm enclosing the embryo. This is swampy woodland and scrub. not so. His "embrog" is endosperm con­ I observed this species in August 1984 taining the embryo. His "endosperm" is growing in and near the ORSTROM forest the seed coat, and his "testa" is the regeneration plots along the Piste Ste. Elie seed-coat's outer pigmented layer. The near Sinnamary in French Guiana. Plants channelled petiole and the inflorescence were growing in the shade of swamp forest emerging without a leaf from the mounts floor, and were rare, in individuals widely of two cataphylls are at best atypical, at scattered. They were found to have the worst fictitious. rhizome below the water table, with the Specimens seen: apical bud situated at the interface of French Guiana, Saut Mais ± 20km E. of slate-grey waterlogged (ferrous) and the Saul, Cremers 6107 (CAY!, K!); overlying brown (ferric) aerobic soil. The Piste Ste elie, nr. Sinnamary, Hay bases of the rhizomes lay level with the top 2818 (M!); Leprieur 152 (P!, US!), of an underlying layer of sand. In such s.n. leg. 1838 (P!), leg. 1847 (P!); conditions the rhizomes bore very few Marecages de Mt. Sineri, Melinon roots, scattered along the length. Some of 52 (P!), 98 (P!), 115 (P!). these were wrinkled, suggesting they are Surinam, confluence of the Ta­ contractile. A few plants were also found panahoney and Paloemeu rivers, growing in an area flooded by a stream blocked off by the road which had been Wessels Boer 1223 (Kl, NY!, U!, built eleven years previously.