Revision of Pycnandra subgenus Achradotypus (Sapotaceae), with five new species from New Caledonia
Ulf Swenson A C and Jérôme Munzinger BA Department of Phanerogamic Botany, Swedish Museum of Natural History, PO Box 50007, 10405 Stockholm, Sweden.
B IRD, UMR AMAP, Laboratoire de Botanique et d’Écologie Végétale Appliquées, Herbarium NOU, F-98848 Nouvelle-Calédonie; IRD, UMR AMAP, Montpellier F-34000, France.
C Corresponding author. Email: Ulf.Swenson@nrm.se
Australian Systematic Botany 23(3) 185-216 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB09049
Submitted: 10 November 2009 Accepted: 30 April 2010 Published: 14 July 2010
Abstract
Pycnandra is a genus of Sapotaceae (Chrysophylloideae), restricted to New Caledonia, and includes ~60 species. The genus is a member of the monophyletic Niemeyera complex of Australia and New Caledonia and it is characterised by the lack of staminodes and a fruit containing a single seed, plano-convex cotyledons and absence of endosperm. In New Caledonia, several segregate genera have been recognised, but weak cladistic support for these groups and homoplasious morphology renders a narrow generic concept untenable. Instead, a broad generic circumscription of Pycnandra with an infrageneric classification recognising the subgenera Achradotypus, Leptostylis, Pycnandra, Sebertia and Trouettia results in a stable nomenclature. Here we revise Pycnandra subg. Achradotypus that includes 14 species, of which five (P. belepensis, P. blaffartii, P. bracteolata, P. glabella, and P. ouaiemensis) are described as new. Members of subg. Achradotypus are distinguished from other subgenera on the basis of a character combination of two stamens opposite each corolla lobe (except P. litseiflora), glabrous leaves (except P. belepensis and P. decandra), a distinctive reticulate tertiary leaf venation (except P. comptonii), and sepal-like bracts that often are borne along the pedicel. All species are restricted to Grande Terre except for P. decandra, whose distribution also extends to nearby Art Island (Belep Islands), and P. belepensis, which is endemic to that same island. The members grow in a wide range of vegetation types from dry maquis to humid forest, from sea level to the highest mountain massif, and on ultramafic soils to schist and greywacke (not limestone). Because of past and present threats such as mining, logging and fire, preliminary IUCN Red List assessments are provided for all species. Five taxa (P. chartacea, P. decandra subsp. decandra, P. glabella, P. litseiflora, and P. neocaledonica) are proposed the IUCN status Endangered, and P. belepensis and P. ouaiemensis are proposed to be Critically Endangered. We suggest that some locations where these species occur should be given protection in the form of nature reserves.
Acknowledgements
We are especially grateful to James Richardson and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on the manuscript, to Jens Klackenberg who checked the Latin diagnoses, and to Emma Hultén who drew the illustrations. For enthusiastic field company in New Caledonia, we direct our thanks to Daniel and Irène Létocart, Christian Létocart, Rémy Amice, Gildas Gâteblé and Odile Chapelle. Philippe Morat and Christiane Tirel helped with various issues in the Paris collections. We are grateful to the Conservation authorities of the North and South Provinces of New Caledonia (DDEE and DENV), which provided us with collecting permits. Financial support has been received from the Swedish Research Council and the European SYNTHESYS program to Ulf Swenson, as a part of an ongoing research program on Sapotaceae phylogeny and biogeography.
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