Bomarea globosa Fierro-Minda, Tribble & Á.J.Pérez, sp. nov.

(Figs 1,2)

Type: — ECUADOR. Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas: Cantón Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, vía antigua Quito-Chiriboga, entre Bellavista y El Tránsito, 00°17’13”S, 78°51’03”W, 1500–1700 m, 12 Jun 2024, Pérez et al. 12153 (holotype: QCA-251808; isotype: QCNE).

Bomarea globosa resembles Bomarea campanularia Harling & Neuendorf (2003: 33) in having campanulate flowers and short inflorescences but can be differentiated by falcate leaves (vs. lanceolate to narrowly ovate or elliptic), flowers widely open at anthesis (vs. nearly closed) and a glabrous perianth (vs. hirsute).

Terrestrial herbs with multiple underground fusiform to globose root tubers, 2.0–3.4 × 3.0– 3.6 cm, pale yellow to white, 1 root tuber emerging from each root. Stem twining 3–4 m long and 0.2–0.3 cm in diameter, terete, glabrous, internodes (1.3–) 2.7–5.5 cm long, last internode 7.0– 11.5 cm long; basal leaves reduced to lanceolate scales, 0.8–2 × 0.1–0.2 cm. Leaves falcate, 10.0–16.5 × 1.5–2.2 cm, base asymmetrical to attenuate, apex attenuate, abaxially and adaxially glabrous; blades with 7 prominent parallel veins, midvein raised above creating a keel-like structure; petioles resupinate, 1.0– 1.4 cm long. Inflorescence umbelliform, compound and dense, with 4–15(–20) flowers, rays forked near the base, each ray forms a drepanium with 2–4 flowers; peduncle 0.1–0.2 cm long, terete, involucral bracts 5–7, lanceolate, 0.8–1.2 × 0.1–0.2 cm, bracteoles lanceolate to linear, 0.20–0.40 × 0.06–0.10 cm, present in some flowers; pedicels 1.0– 1.7 cm long, terete. Flowers campanulate, bisexual, radially symmetrical, wide open at anthesis; perianth epigynous, globose, glabrous, sepals and petals free to base; sepals 3, 1.4–1.6 × 0.7–0.8 cm, oblong to elliptical, slightly convex, with a 1 mm black to red apical claw, outer surface red and inner surface pale yellow; petals 3, unguiculate, spathulate, apex acuminate, 1.6–1.7 × 0.8–1.0 cm, inner surface slightly spotted towards the edges and outer surface with a red midvein, the color sometimes expanded towards the apex; subdivided in blade and claw, claw 0.4 × 0.3 cm, blade 1.2 × 1.0 cm. Androecium of 6 free stamens; filaments 0.7–0.9 cm long; anther pseudo-basifixed, 0.5 cm long, fusiform; thecae 0.1 cm long; pollen grains lilac. Style 0.7 cm long, ovary 0.3–0.6 × 0.3–0.5 cm, covered with purple trichomes. Fruit a dehiscent capsule, glabrous, round-trigonous, wall coarse and uneven, divided in three valves, 1.7 × 1.3 cm, brown when mature. Seeds 9–15, spherical, 0.5–0.7 mm in diameter, sarcotesta red.

Etymology:— Referring to the perianth shape.

Distribution, habitat and ecology:— Known thus far only from two localities, the old Quito-Santo Domingo Road in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas Province and the surroundings of Mindo in Pichincha Province (Fig. 3). According to the Ministerio del Ambiente del Ecuador (2013), this area corresponds to the low montane evergreen forest of the Western Cordillera of northern Ecuador (forest type BsBn04), where the largest number of endemic Ecuadorian species are found (León-Yánez et al. 2011). Field observations show that B. globosa likely climbs only 1–2 m on forest vegetation and flowers in shaded areas, making it hard to find. This is likely one of the reasons for the lack of prior collections despite the history of botanical collecting in the area. The new species grows sympatrically with B. pardina Herber (1837: 120).

Phenology:— Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.

Conservation status:— Bomarea globosa is known from the western slopes in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas and Pichincha Provinces, in secondary and mature forest remnants surrounded by farmlands and roadside vegetation. Based on the available information and according to IUCN (2024), B. globosa should be considered as vulnerable (VU B2ab(iii)) because of its area of occupancy (AOO <350 km 2) and only six known localities. It is potentially an ornamental species that needs propagation assays to determine suitability for cultivation.

Additional specimens examined:— ECUADOR. Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas (Pichincha on the label): Chiriboga, en la carretera vieja Quito-Sto. Domingo, Reserva Forestal “La Favorita”, 00°12’S, 78°47’W, 1600–1800 m, 8 Feb 1990 (fl), Cerón & Iguago 8488 (QCNE-46772, MO-2077315); vía antigua Quito-Chiriboga, entre Bellavista y El Tránsito, 00°18’09” S, 78°51’35”W, 1500–1700 m, 12 Jun 2024 (fl), Pérez et al. 12152 (QCA-251807).

Three additional localities are provided from photographic evidence:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/198834012

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/105475527

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20894668

https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreaskay/16346837085/in/album-72157634744510659/

Notes:— Sequential flowering (Fig. 2D) makes the inflorescence resemble a drepanium. In some cases, it is possible to find mature flowers and immature fruits in the same inflorescence (Fig. 1B). The fruit capsule measurements are approximations based on close-up photographs of Fig. 1B, since there were no ripe unopened fruits in the available collections.

Bomarea globosa differs from other similar members of Bomarea based on its leaf shape, perianth pubescence, openness at anthesis, and floral morphology (Table 1). However, the most important difference between B. globosa and both B. campanularia and B. obovata Herbert (1837: 112) is the degree of floral openness at anthesis: the flowers of B. globosa are widely open but nearly closed for B. campanularia and B. obovata; also, clear differences are found in their inflorescence configuration, being simple and dense for B. globosa and B. campanularia, whereas compound and widely spaced for B. obovata.

Bomarea globosa has previously been misidentified as B. spissiflora Harling & Neuendorf (2003: 44) because of its glabrous leaves, as well as its short, dense inflorescence. However, flowers of B. globosa are campanulate versus infundibuliform in B. spissiflora.

Bomarea globosa has falcate leaves, whereas leaves of B. campanularia are lanceolate to narrowly ovate versus lanceolate to ovate in B. spissiflora. Involucral bracts are absent in B. globosa, differentiating it from B. campanularia, B. obovata, and B. spissiflora, in which they are present. Also, the perianth of B. globosa is glabrous, whereas it is whitebrown hirsute in B. campanularia and densely red hirsute in B. spissiflora. Bomarea globosa has only been found on the northwestern Andean slopes of Pichincha and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, whereas B. campaularia and B. spissiflora occur from the south-western (El Oro and Loja) and south-eastern (Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe) Andean slopes of Ecuador, respectively. Bomarea campaularia also occurs in northern Peru (Huancabamba Province).

There has been inconsistent use of bract terminology in previous Bomarea treatments. Bracts are defined as modified leaf-like structures located at the base of a flower or inflorescence (Beentje 2016, Harris & Harris 2006) and can be categorized according to their position on the inflorescence; involucral bracts are modified leaves subtending the peduncle, and bracteoles are (usually) much smaller modified leaves subtending the pedicel (Song et al. 2024).

Harling & Neuendorf (2003) differentiated bract terminology based on inflorescence configuration. They used involucral bracts and bracteoles for describing simple inflorescences and used involucral and subtending bracts for describing compound inflorescences. They used the term involucral bract in both cases, defined as the modified leaves subtending the inflorescence, but they changed the term for referring to the modified leaves subtending the pedicels between bracteoles and subtending bracts depending on the inflorescence type. However, the description of Bomarea trimorphophylla Harling & Neuendorf (2003: 62) included the term bracteole as a third category for describing a compound inflorescence; this species has involucral bracts, subtending bracts and bracteoles all in the same inflorescence. Also, for the descriptions of B. cornuta Herbert (1837: 114), B. moritziana Klotzsch in Kunth (1850: 797), and B. spissiflora, the term bractlet is mentioned but refers to the same feature as bracteole.

In other revisions, Hofreiter stopped using these terms and only refers to bracts of primary flower and bracts of secondary flowers when describing thyrse-like or compound inflorescences (Hofreiter 2006, Hofreiter 2008 a, Hofreiter 2008b, Hofreiter & Tillich 2003). Similarly, Alzate-Guarín (2016) divided bract terminology into bract and bracteole. In this case, bracteole is used for every bract that is not involucral, like the use in Hofreiter’s revisions.

Here, as an attempt to standardize bract terminology, we propose the use of involucral bracts for describing the modified leaves that subtend Bomarea inflorescences and bracteoles for the modified leaves along the pedicel. We avoid the use of “subtending” because it is ambiguous: involucral bracts subtend the inflorescence and bracteoles subtend the flowers.

Key to distinguish morphologically similar species

1. Flowers campanulate ..........................................................................................................................................................................2

- Flowers infundibuliform.................................................................................................................................................. B. spissiflora

2. Congested (dense) inflorescence ........................................................................................................................................................3

- Lax (widely spaced) inflorescence ..................................................................................................................................... B. obovata

3. Perianth almost closed at anthesis ............................................................................................................................. B. campanularia

- Perianth wide open at anthesis ............................................................................................................................................ B. globosa