| Publication Type: | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication: | 2012 |
| Authors: | Wong, S. Y., Boyce, P. C., Low S. L. |
| Journal: | Gardens' Bulletin. Singapore |
| Volume: | 64 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Start Page: | 257 |
| Pagination: | 269 |
| Keywords: | Araceae, Borneo, Sarawak, Schismatoglottis Hottae Complex, Schismattoglottis |
| Abstract: | On the basis of a suite of shared morphological characters, the Schismatoglottis Hottae Complex is defined as a Borneo-endemic informal taxon in the Schismatoglottis Asperata Group. Four species, three novel, are assigned to the Hottae Complex: S. hottae Bogner & Nicolson, S. dilecta S.Y.Wong, P.C.Boyce & S.L.Low, sp. nov., S. mira S.Y.Wong, P.C.Boyce & S.L.Low, sp. nov., and S. thelephora S.Y.Wong, P.C.Boyce & S.L.Low, sp. nov. A key to species of the Hottae Complex is proffered. Schismatoglottis hottae is illustrated from the Holotype herbarium material, the three novelties from living plants. |
| Full Text | Earlier papers of this series (Boyce & Wong 2006; Wong 2010), and Hay & Yuzammi (2000), highlight that the Asperata Group (sensu Hay & Yuzammi 2000) is certainly heterogeneous. Notwithstanding the phylogenetic veracity or otherwise of the Asperata Group, during extensive fieldwork over the past 6 years in Sarawak we have come to recognise that within the Asperata Group there exists a number of ‘species complexes’—subsets of morphotaxa—the application of an informal nomenclature to which provides a convenient tool for discussing potential phylogenetically significant units (PSUs). One such is the Hottae Complex, defined here by long-persistent somewhat bicarinate ligular sheaths, petioles and sometimes leaf blades with deciduous indumentum, leaf blades abaxially with conspicuous pellucid secretory canals, solitary inflorescences with a very short peduncle completely concealed within the subtending cataphylls, staminate flowers with a blunt, narrowly pyramidal connective extended well beyond the thecae, and a spathe limb darkening rapidly after opening and thence deliquescing without crumbling. All species show an ecological preference for vertical or very steep slopes with surface running water in lowland moist or perhumid gallery forest, with one (S. thelephora sp. nov.) at least a facultative rheophyte. So far four species are known that display the above set of morphological characters: S. hottae Bogner & Nicolson, and three novelties, here described. |