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New Taxa of Caladium, Chlorospatha, and Xanthosoma (Araceae: Colocasioideae) from Southern Central America and Northwestern Colombia

1986; Missouri Botanical Garden; Volume: 73; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2399124

2162-4372

Michael H. Grayum,

Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

Six new infrageneric taxa of Araceae, subfamily Colocasioideae, are described.Chlorospatha hammcliana is described from a restricted area of Panama, C croatiana ssp.croatiana from Costa Rica and Panama, and Caladium lindenii (Andre) Madison var.sylvestre from Panama and Colombia.These represent the first reported indigenous occurrences of the genera Caladium and Chlorospatha outside of South America.In addition, Chlorospatha gentryi and C croatiana ssp.enneaphylla are described from northwestern Colombia.Chlorospatha croatiana and C gentryi are the fourth and fifth species of their genus known to have compound leaves; a key is provided to all five.A brief review of generic distinctions within the tribe Caladieae precedes the description of the second known peltateleaved species of Xanthosoma, X. caladioides, from eastern Panama.The tribe Caladieae (sensu Madison, 1981), belonging to the subfamily Colocasioideae of the overwhelmingly tropical family Araceae, consists of six genera and 70-75 species, all confined to the New World, Three of the genera, Aphyllarum, Jasarum, and Scaphispatha, are monotypic and of restricted distribution in South America and will not be considered further in this paper.The remaining three genera, Caladium, Chlorospatha, and Xanthosoma, comprise the bulk of the species and range more widely, though only Xanthosoma has been heretofore reported to extend beyond South America (Croat, 1979; Madison, 1981).The Caladieae appear to be especially diverse in the Andean regions of northern South Amer-Caladivm Caladium lindenii (Andre) Madison is well known in cultivation as an ornamental plant with whitish or silvery leaf venation.This species is more commonly, but improperly, known as Xanthosoma lindenii (Andre) Engl., the transfer to Caladium having been made only recently (Madison, 1981), It was first described, as Phyllotaenium lindenii Andre, in 1 872, from plants supposedly collected in Colombia; although persisting in cultivation, the species was not found again in the wild until 1939, when a form with plain green leaves was collected in Choco Department, Colombia {Killip 35140, COL).Subsequent collections have extended the known natural range of this species-and consequently ica, and recent work on newly available collec-^^ ^^^ g^^^^ Caladium-\nio central Panama, tions from that area (Madison, 1981) has led to ^11 collections of the plain-leaved form have, the clarification ofgeneric concepts in the group, ^ntil recently, either been misidentified or left These refined concepts have, in turn, facilitated undetermined.the placement of new taxa collected in SouthThe ''wild type," plain green-leaved form of America and other regions, including those de-Caladium lindenii is described below as a new scribed below.variety ' I am grateful to Thomas B. Croat for assistance in my work at the Missouri Botanical Garden and for providing the photographs oi Chlorospatha croatiana and C. hammeliana.I also thank Alwyn H. Gentry for allowing me to use his photo of C gentryi.