BROMELIACEAE. Even when Manual co-PI Barry Hammel
goes on holiday, his legendary serendipity never takes a break. During a
weekend visit to his in-laws, Barry and significant other Isabel
Pérez were poking around in remnant forest (surrounded by pineapple
plantations) along the Río Cañas, near Buenos Aires in the southern
Valle de El General, when they encountered an unfamiliar bromeliad, virtually
sterile except for a very old, decayed infructescence. Barry was reminded of
Aechmea tonduzii Mez & Pittier or Ronnbergia hathewayi L. B. Sm.,
morphologically similar but both characteristic of much wetter forests at
higher elevations. When a subsequent herbarium crawl and literature search
failed to pan out, he turned in desperation to the Manual page-proofs, where
his eyes were caught by Silvia Troyo's illustration of Billbergia
macrolepis L. B. Sm.-a sp. known from Costa Rica by just one collection,
made over 100 years ago by Henri Pittier. Lo and behold, the
description also fit, as did the locality: Pittier's collection was made in
the same general area. Barry vows to return next dry season for flowering
material, but this looks like a lock, and probably the first identification
made using type-set Manual copy. A parallel find by Barry and Isabel, on the
same trip, was Begonia guaduensis Kunth (Begoniaceae), also previously
known from Costa Rica by a single collection from the southern Valle de El
General; in this case, however, the prior collection is a much more recent
one, by peripatetic Costa Rican ethnobotanist Rafael Ocampo.
FABACEAE/FABOIDEAE. Several years ago, Manual co-PI Nelson Zamora
collected an unusual Sesbania sp. at Lago Caño Negro, on the
Atlantic coastal plain near the Nicaraguan border, that he had never
encountered there during several prior visits. He has now established
that this material represents Sesbania exasperata Kunth, previously
known from Nicaragua and Panama (as well as South America), but appearing
to “skip“ Costa Rica. It is clearly distinguished from S.
herbacea (Mill.) McVaugh [until recently known as S. emerus
(Aubl.) Urb.], common and conspicuous in the Guanacaste region, by its
wider pedicels and fruits. Also on the lengthy roster of spp.
“skipping“ Costa Rica has been the tree Styphnolobium
sporadicum M. Sousa & Rudd, reported from southern Mexico, El Salvador,
and northwestern Colombia. Costa Rica may be provisionally added to this
list on the basis of a gathering by INBio “bioprospecting“
collector Luis Acosta from the Puriscal region, on the Pacific slope
in Prov. San José, along the road to San Pablo de Turrubares. Both
flowers and fruits are now available, and the match is virtually perfect.
TOP
