Hechtia deceptrix (A, E) A . Rosette showing the glabrous abaxial area and dark green color of leaves. E . Erect fruits (Based on Zamudio et al. 13866 , UAMIZ). Hechtia epigyna (B, C, D, F). B . Rosette showing densely white lepidote adaxial surface and light green color of leaves. C . Lateral origin of inflorescence according to the pseudomonopodial growth pattern. D . Staminate flowers showing pink petals. F . Pendent fruits (Based on Ramírez et al. 1956 , CICY). (Photographs: A, B, F by Ivon Ramírez-Morillo; C by Jacinto Treviño-Carreón; D by Michael Wisnev; E by Carlos Jiménez). 

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... 2–3.5 mm long, adnate at their bases, white, falsely appearing, due to level of insertion along the floral axis, to be as long as the petals at anthesis; placentation central, ovules white-greenish. Fruits ellipsoid, sessile, 10–14 mm long, 4–4.5 mm diameter, glabrous, erect, and brown when mature; seeds fusiform, brown to reddish brown, reticulate, ca. 3 mm long, 1 mm diameter, with a lateral wing ending in two caudae, these hyaline. Habitat & Distribution :— Hechtia deceptrix occurs in Rio Amajac basin in the Municipality of Atotonilco El Grande, limiting with the municipalities of Actopan and Cardonal, in the central portion of Hidalgo. Plants of the new species form small (2–3 rosettes) to rarely large (8–12 rosettes, Figure 2A) colonies on limestone cliffs at 1700–1800 m of elevation. These localities are part of the strip of submontane scrub that extends from Jacala and Pacula in the northwestern portion of Hidalgo, to the southeast into the region of Santa María Amajac, in the physiographic subprovince of Carso Huasteco in the Sierra Madre Oriental Province (Anonymous, 1992). Locally, H. deceptrix is associated with other rosetofilous plants such as Agave celsii Hooker (1856: t4934), Agave striata Zuccarini (1833: 678), A. xylonacantha Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck (1859: 92), Dasylirion longissimum Lemaire (1856: 91), H. glomerata , Tillandsia albida Mez & Purpus, in Mez (1916: 248), and T. grandis Schlechtendal (1845: 424), among other typical elements of these particular dry forests. The population at Puente de Dios is located at the limit of the Faja Volcánica Transmexicana Province in a transition to a forest of Juniperus flaccida Schlechtendal (1838: 495), together with Brahea berlandieri Bartlett (1935: 31). In contrast, the only known population of Hechtia epigyna is located in the subprovince of the Gran Sierra Plegada in the state of Tamaulipas in the Sierra Madre Oriental Province, at lower elevation (585–612 m) in submontane scrub vegetation with a different floristic composition (Puig, 1991). At the type locality, H. epigyna grows on vertical karstic walls with northern exposure, forming dense colonies of several rosettes (4–12) along with Brahea berlandieri , Stenocereus griseus (Haworth 1812: 182) Buxbaum (1961: 100), Myrtillocactus geometrizans Martius, in Pfeiffer (1837: 90) Console (1897: 10), and more frequently on less steep stone walls together with Pilosocereus chrysacanthus (Weber 1897: 178) Byles & Rowley (1957: 66), Agave lophantha Kunth (1850: 838), and Dioon edule Lindley (1843: 59), as well as spikemosses and Mexican snow balls (Selaginellaceae). Etymology: —The specific Latin epithet, deceptrix means deceiver, after the fact that the new species was confused with Hechtia epigyna when first collected by A. Espejo and collaborators. Additional specimens examined (paratypes) :—MEXICO. Hidalgo: Municipio Actopan, Puente de Dios, 20°18’13’’ N, 98°47’20’’ W, 1740 m, 25 August 2007, Zamudio et al. 13866 , fruits (IEB, UAMIZ!); alrededores de Puente de Dios, municipio de Actopan, 20°18’08’’ N, 98°47’23’’ W, 1735 m, 15 May 2008, López-Ferrari et al. 3311 ♂ (IEB, UAMIZ!); Municipio de Cardonal, barranca de Tolantongo, 20°37’52’’ N, 98°59’30’’ W, 1739 m, 16 May 2008, Espejo et al. 7150 ♀ (IEB, UAMIZ!); 7151♂ (IEB, UAMIZ); ejido San Cristóbal, 20o38’20’’ N, 98o59’30’’ W, 1800 m, 18 March 2008, Zamudio & Zamudio 14085 ♀ (IEB, UAMIZ!); Municipio de Atotonilco el Grande, Puente de Dios, 20°18’08’’ N, 98°47’22’’ W, 1700 m, 02 April 2012, Hornung-Leoni et al. 1344 ♀ (HGOM!); Municipio Cardonal, barranca de Tolantongo, 20°38’8’’ N, 98°59’27’’ W, 1791 m, 03 May 2012, Hornung-Leoni et al. 1354 ♂ (HGOM!). Discussion: —We located two collections of Hechtia epigyna : the type, collected in Jaumave, Tamaulipas, and one deposited at GH, H. W. von Rozynski 741 (leaf and staminate inflorescence), collected in “ Tamaulipas , Jaumave near Nogales, II. 1933 ”. The locality provided by von Rozynski 741 took us to Nogales in the Municipality of Jaumave, at the edge of “Reserva de la Biosfera El Cielo” in Tamaulipas. Our search was fruitful and we found large populations of Hechtia epigyna : round rosettes with old, lateral staminate inflorescences and infructescences. The first author also had the opportunity to observe plants named Hechtia epigyna in San Diego, California, in March 2014, long in cultivation, one of which at the time was in bloom bearing a lateral inflorescence with pink petals (Figure 3D) and presenting other features (vegetative and floral ones) that match well the protologue of H. epigyna ; the available locality data for these cultivated plants indicated that they originally came from somewhere in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Overall, all the evidence indicates that H. epigyna is confined to Tamaulipas, and that both populations from Hidalgo represent the new species described in this article. Hechtia deceptrix differs from H. epigyna in several important characters (Table 1, Figure 3): the most important one is that the former has central or terminal inflorescences or strict sympodium pattern (SPP) growth as defined by Ramírez et al. (2014) while H. epigyna has lateral inflorescences and pseudomonopodial growth pattern (SMP, Figure 3C). In this sense, H. epigyna forms part of the H. glomerata complex as defined by Jiménez (2011), whose members are distributed in several biotic provinces sensu Morrone (2014), namely: Mosquito (Honduras), Península de Yucatán, Tierras Altas de Chiapas, Sierra Madre Oriental, Altiplano Mexicano, Provincia Veracruzana, and Provincia de Tamaulipas, all draining chiefly into the Atlantic watershed of Megamexico. All taxa in the H. glomerata complex share a pseudomonopodial growth pattern. In addition, H. deceptrix has greenish-white petals in flowers of both sexes at anthesis and erect fruits, whereas H. epigyna has flowers with pink petals in both sexes and pendent fruits (Figure 3D, F). Epigyny, shared by Hechtia deceptrix and H. epigyna , probably evolved twice in the genus as suggested by preliminary results of a phylogenetic study based on cpDNA and nuclear DNA (I. Ramírez, in prep.), where the H. glomerata complex sensu Jiménez (2011) is monophyletic. IUCN Conservation assessment :—The conservation status of Hechtia deceptrix was assessed using the IUCN Red List Criteria (IUCN 2010). Because of the lack of hard population information, we relied mostly upon distributional data, namely, the set of B criteria, geographical distribution assessed both as B1 (extent of occurrence, EOO) or B2 (area of occupancy, AOO).To estimate distributional ranges, both extent of occurrence and area of occupancy, we used the GeoCat software (GeoCat 2014; Bachman et al. 2011). Using both B criteria the species ranks as CR (Critically Endangered), with an EOO of 20.127 km 2 and AOO of 8.000 km 2 . The species is known from five collection points all near roadsides and most likely occurs as isolated populations on appropriate microniches in Hidalgo in the Sierra Madre Oriental Province and neighboring areas of the Faja Volcánica Transmexicana Province. We are indebted to Evelyn Rios and Laura Rodríguez for field assistance when collecting in Tamaulipas, and to Gil Mendoza as well as Paula Moreno when collecting in Hidalgo. We thank the curators of the following herbaria B, GH, IEB, MEXU, MICH, MO, OAX, UAMIZ, UC, US, WU, and XAL for sending Hechtia material on loan. The first author is indebted to the Elizabeth Bascom Fellowship and the Missouri Botanical Garden, the DAAD-ANUIES, and the Klarff foundation for financial support to study the Bromeliaceae collection in the herbaria B, BM, K, MO, OXF, W, and WU. We are indebted to CONACyT for funding the project “Phylogeny, evolution and biogeography of Hechtia Klotzsch (Hechtioideae: Bromeliaceae)” (number 183281) granted to the IMRM. We would also like to thank PROMEP for the financial support to the project: “Distribución de las Bromeliaceae del Estado de Hidalgo” and to FOMIX-CONACYT for funding the project “Diversidad del Estado de Hidalgo” second phase (95828) and third phase (191908) both granted to the CTHL. We also acknowledge the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas for the financial support to the project: “Diversidad del género Hechtia (Bromeliaceae) en el Altiplano de Tamaulipas y Regiones Adyacentes” (PFI2014-16), granted to JTC. We also thank Silvia Hernandez-Aguilar for handling the herbarium material and loans, José Luis Tapia Muñoz for compiling and maintaining a database of Mexican Bromeliaceae, and to Gustavo A. Romero-González (AMES), who supplied literature on the genus, facilitated the study of herbarium material at the Harvard University Herbaria, and reviewed the English version of this paper. Germán Carnevali (CICY) reviewed a late draft of the manuscript. Robert Kopfstein, Andy Siekkenen, Dan Kinnard, Eloise Lau, and Pamela Koide-Hyatt, members of the San Diego Bromeliad and Saddleback Valley Bromeliad Societies, kindly showed the first author the true identity of Hechtia epigyna . We are grateful to Michael Wisnev for sending pictures of Hechtia epigyna in bloom, cultivated at the Huntington Botanical Garden, to Carlos Jiménez Nah for the photographs of the specimens of the new species deposited at Herbarium UAMIZ, to Jorge A. González Martínez for the illustration of the new species, and, finally, to Eric Gouda for editorial comments and to two anonymous reviewers for observations and suggestions that greatly improved the ...