LAMMERS, THOMAS G. Department of Biology and Microbiology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh WI 54901. - Neotropical Lobelioideae (Campanulaceae): more new species, more new characters.
Botanical exploration of new areas in Andean South America by various
collectors continues to generate numerous specimens of Burmeistera,
Centropogon, and Siphocampylus (Campanulaceae:
Lobelioideae). Study of these materials has revealed fifteen species
new to science. These novelties, for the most part, do not differ
from known congeners by simple quantitative differences. Rather, they
possess characters or combinations of characters that are unique or
highly unusual in their respective taxa. For example, expeditions into
the Cerro Golondrinas of northern Ecuador have yielded three new
species of Burmeistera. One is the first member of the genus to
bear branched (arbusculiform) trichomes; another has flowers two to
three times longer than the next largest congener and appears to be
the first species of the genus adapted to pollination by hawkmoths
(Sphingidae). A new species of Centropogon from Napo, Ecuador,
is the first species of sect. Wimmeriopsis with arbusculiform
hairs; it is also one of the few species in that group with connate
calyx lobes. Another member of the genus from the Cordillera Central
of Colombia is the first to combine white arbusculiform hairs and
pinnately lobed leaves. Two new species of Siphocampylus
feature umbellate inflorescences. The one from central Bolivia is the
first to combine this unusual feature with verticillate leaves, while
the one from Mérida, Venezuela, is the first to combine it with
arbusculiform trichomes. A Siphocampylus from pajonal
habitats in San Martín, Peru, features a unique dimorphic habit:
twining horizontal primary stems with erect whip-like branches. The
continued discovery of numerous species that force us to enlarge the
description of the taxa to which they belong suggests that much of the
biotic diversity of the Neotropics remains to be discovered.
Key words: Burmeistera, Campanulaceae, Centropogon, Lobelioideae, new species, Siphocampylus