A new species of Oryctina (Loranthaceae) from Guyana

JOB KUIJT
Kuijt, J. (Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 3N5, Canada; e-mail: jkuijt@uvic.ca). A new species of Oryctina (Loranthaceae) from Guyana. Brittonia 55: 169172. 2003.A new species of Oryctina (Loranthaceae) from Guyana, O. atrolineata Kuijt is described and illustrated. It possesses one-owered inorescences, the owers being hexamerous and each subtended by a bract and two minute bracteoles. A peculiarity of the style is a distinctive fusiform, subterminal swelling. Oryctina atrolineata is closely related, and similar to, O. myrsinites (Eichler) Kuijt. Key words: Neotropical mistletoes, Oryctina, Guyana, Loranthaceae.

Ixocactus and some species of Oryctina possess what are probably the smallest owers in the Loranthaceae. Furthermore, the inorescences of some species of the latter genus tend to be exceedingly short and crowded (Kuijt, 1991a). These features, and frequent similarities in habit, coupled with a shortage of materials, have rendered morphological interpretations difcult in the past. Thus the second specimen included in the new species described below, Pipoly & Godfrey 7388, has been previously listed both under Oryctina myrsinites (Eichler) Kuijt and Ixocactus clandestinus (Mart.) Kuijt (Kuijt, 1991a, 1994). Similarly, the type specimen of the present new species was included in I. clandestinus (Kuijt 1994). Both these assignments are in error. Closer scrutiny has shown that these two specimens represent an undescribed species of Oryctina, forming the subject of this paper. There are two general morphological distinctions between the two genera. First, Ixocactus has tetramerous owers (Kuijt, 1991b; rarely pentamerousKuijt, 1994); Oryctina has hexamerous owers (Kuijt, 2000). Second, Ixocactus lacks an inorescence, all owers being sessile and (except the primary axillary one) placed in the axil of a prophyllar bract (see, for example, Ixocactus inconspicuus (Benth.) Kuijt, as Cla-

docolea inconspicua (Benth.) Kuijt in Kuijt, 1975, Fig. 19a). Each ower is anked by two transversely placed prophylls, each of which can subtend a secondary ower. Thus, even though an inorescence per se does not exist, we can speak of a determinate conditionin effect, a simple dichasium without peduncle or pedicels. In contrast, Oryctina has indeterminate, spike-like inorescences that in most species are easily recognizable as such. The difculties emerge in species such as O. myrsinites (Eichl.) Kuijt, where the inorescence axis is so short (especially in young inorescences) and conditions are so crowded in the leaf axil, that the impression is given of several owers directly sessile in the leaf axil, all lacking a common inorescence axis. It is helpful, in such species of Oryctina, that the prophylls stand rigidly erect and nearly parallel to the stem surface, or above the fruits (Fig. 1d) and clearly do not subtend owers as they do in Ixocactus. Oryctina atrolineata Kuijt, sp. nov. (Fig. 1) TYPE: GUYANA. Demerara: Mahica. Timehri: near airport, 623N, 5810W, parasitic on a shrub, savanna, 24 Aug 1989, G. Cremers, J. J. de Granville, H. Ter Steege, & D. Gopaul 10912 (HOLOTYPE: CAY; ISOTYPE: LEA).
ISSUED: 30 June 2003

Brittonia, 55(2), 2003, pp. 169172. 2003, by The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY 10458-5126 U.S.A.

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FIG. 1. Oryctina atrolineata (ac, Cremers et al. 10912, LEA; d, Pipoly & Godfrey 7388, LEA). A. Leafy shoot, the axillary owers virtually invisible. B. Dimorphic petals and (middle) style. C. Mature ower bud, subtended by one bract and two bracteoles. D. Immature fruit, the bract and one bracteole showing. L, subtending leaf; P, erect prophylls of the one-owered inorescence.

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Planta dense foliosa, glabra; internodia teretia, usque ad 2 cm longa. Folia decussata, obovata, atromarginata, in apice rotundata vel emarginata. Spica nulla. Uniora, os sessilis, 2 mm longus; petala 6, dimorpha; stylus ad medium inatus.

Small, glabrous, probably pendent plants, with epicortical roots at the base, sparsely branched, internodes to 2 cm long, more or less terete, furfuraceus and light chocolate brown when young, becoming smooth. Phyllotaxy decussate; leaves to 2 1.5 cm, eshy, broadly obovate to nearly orbicular, apex rounded, often emarginate; base abruptly tapering to very short (1 mm) petiole, venation nearly obscure except for midrib, with 24 faint palmate lateral veins; margins and lower midrib furfuraceous when young, these becoming smooth and dark (when dry) when mature, lower midrib and margins joining at the apex. Inorescence 1-owered, the owers seemingly sessile in clusters of 3 or more in leaf axils, each subtended by a nearly smooth-margined to slightly mbriate scale leaf 1.5 mm long, this with acute apex, and anked by 2 black-tipped bracteoles. Flowers 2 mm, possibly unisexual, equally divided in length between petals and ovary, the latter with irregularly lacerate calyculus; petals 6, strongly dimorphic; anthers (staminodia? ) extremely small (ca. 0.25 mm), bilocular, sessile, placed at two different heights on the petals; style 1 mm, the upper half swollen in fusiform fashion; stigma scarcely differentiated. Fruit 3 2 mm, barrel-shaped, with lacerate, brown calyculus, waxy white when dry.
Additional specimens examined: GUYANA. East Demerara Region: Yarowkabra settlement and Forestry Commission Station, ca. 6 km ESE of station, 630N, 5810W, 110 m, on Archytatea, 23 May 1986, Pipoly & Godfrey 7388 (LEA, NY).

Oryctina atrolineata is easily confused with O. myrsinites, which ranges from at least the Santarem area in Brazil to Venezuela (Amazonas; Rizzini, 1982). The most obvious and apparently consistent contrasts lie in leaf morphology. The leaf of O. atrolineata is obovate with the apex rounded or often conspicuously notched. Its upper surface, when dry, shows three or ve faint, palmate veins. The blade has a sharply delimited, dark margin which continues

downward on a similarly colored petiole and, on the lower surface, upward along the midrib reaching the apex. In contrast, the leaf blade of O. myrsinites is ovate or elliptic and shows no trace of venation on either side. There is a similar, dark leaf margin, but the dark color continues neither on the green petiole nor on the lower midrib. The one-owered inorescence of O. atrolineata probably represents the smallest inorescence in Loranthaceae. Other oneowered inorescences occur in both paleotropical and neotropical areas, but only with much larger owers, and always pedunculate owers (Kuijt, 1991a). Although the inorescences of O. atrolineata can occur in small clusters of three or four per leaf axil, they are always morphologically separate: none are subtended by the prophylls of other inorescences. Unfortunately, the material is inadequate to establish whether or not the owers are unisexual. The anthers are exceedingly small, and I have not been able to ascertain whether normal pollen is present. In an unrelated species with comparably small owers and anthers, Ixocactus hutchisonii Kuijt, I have been able to establish that no more than 30 pollen grains are contained in each pollen sac (Kuijt, 1967), and the same might be true in the present species. One of the most remarkable features of the new species is the morphology of its style. It is of special interest that four species of Ixocactus, (I. clandestinus, I. gracilis Kuijt, I. hutchisonii, and I. rhynchophyllus Kuijt) also have greatly swollen styles, although in those species the swollen portion forms the base of the style (Kuijt, 1967, 1975, 1991b) rather than the upper half. It is tempting to suggest a connection between these stylar modications and the curious behavior of the embryo sac which, in numerous other Loranthaceae, pushes its egg apparatus into the style, where fertilization takes place (see Kuijt, 1969). The proembryo is then pushed down into the ovary by a suspensor, where the embryo matures. Nothing is known about such behavior in any neotropical mistletoe except for one species each of Struthanthus and Tripodanthus (Venturelli, 1981, 1983). There remains the unexplained stylar dif-

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ference between my earlier illustration of Pipoly & Godfrey 7388 (Kuijt, 1991a, Fig. 12) and my present Figure 1b. These illustrations show strongly contrasting styles, those of the former of even thickness, those of the latter with a strong median swelling. However, a comparison with Figures 2 & 4 in Kuijt (1991a, for Cladocolea micrantha (Eichler) Kuijt) suggests an explanation. In that species the straight and swollen styles might represent female and male styles, respectively. If true, such a sexual dimorphism in O. atrolineata would make the above-mentioned connection to embryo sac growth less likely, but it would establish the unisexuality of its owers. Acknowledgment The nancial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is gratefully acknowledged.

Kuijt, J. 1967. The genus Ixocactus (Loranthaceae, s.s.): description of its rst species. Brittonia 19: 6267. . 1969. The biology of parasitic owering plants. University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles. . 1975. The genus Cladocolea (Loranthaceae). J. Arnold Arbor. 56: 265335. . 1991a. Inorescence structure and generic placement of some small-owered species of Phthirusa (Loranthaceae). Syst. Bot. 16: 283291. . 1991b. Two new species of Ixocactus (Loranthaceae) and a reformulation of the genus. Syst. Bot. 16: 292298. . 1994. A second Brazilian species of Ixocactus (Loranthaceae). Brittonia 46: 7274. . 2000. Two new Brazilian species of Oryctina (Loranthaceae) with a revised key to the genus. Novon 10: 391397. Rizzini, C. T. 1982. Loranthaceae. In: Z. Luces de F. & J. A. Steyermark, editors. Flora de Venezuela 4(2): 7316. Venturelli, M. 1981. Embriolog a de Struthanthus vulgaris (LoranthaceaeLoranthoideae). Kurtziana 14: 73100. . 1983. Estudios embriolo gicos em Loranthaceae: ge nero Tripodanthus. Kurtziana 16: 7190.