A new Dyckia species (Bromeliaceae, Pitcairnioideae) from the Brazilian Northeastern region

Abstract

A new species of Dyckia (Pitcairnioideae) is described and illustrated here. Dyckia piauiensis sp. nov. was found in the state of Piauí, in northern Brazil, in very dry Cerrado vegetation and cultivated by the first author. This new species' closest relative is Dyckia pernambucana, but differs from it by its larger and retrorse spines, shorter inflorescence and floral bracts, rounded or emarginated sepals and by highly connate stamens.

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296 Accepted by Jeffery M. Saarela: 25 Mar 2014; published: 11 Apr. 2014
PHYTOTAXA
ISSN 1179-3155 (print edition)
ISSN 1179-3163 (online edition)
Copyright © 2014 Magnolia Press
Phytotaxa 164 (4): 296–300
www.mapress.com/phytotaxa/Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.164.4.10
A new Dyckia species (Bromeliaceae, Pitcairnioideae) from the Brazilian
Northeastern region
EDDIE ESTEVES PEREIRA1,3 & ERIC JOHN GOUDA2
1Alameda das Sibipirunas, Qd.16-B, Lt. 02, Condomínio Residencial Aldeia do Vale.CEP: 74680-510, Goiânia - Goiás, Brazil.
Email: cactosbr@terra.com.br.
2Utrecht University Botanic Gardens, Budapestlaan 17, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands. Email: e.j.gouda@uu.nl
3Author for correspondence.
Abstract
A new species of Dyckia (Pitcairnioideae) is described and illustrated here. Dyckia piauiensis sp. nov. was found in the
state of Piauí, in northern Brazil, in very dry Cerrado vegetation and cultivated by the first author. This new species’
closest relative is Dyckia pernambucana, but differs from it by its larger and retrorse spines, shorter inflorescence and
floral bracts, rounded or emarginated sepals and by highly connate stamens.
Key words: Flora of Brazil, Cerrado, taxonomy
Introduction
Dyckia Schult. & Schult. f. (1830: 1194) is a large genus of the subfamily Pitcairnioideae (Bromeliaceae),
comprising around 158 species (Butcher & Gouda continuously updated). The genus occurs throughout Brazil and
surrounding countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay (Smith & Downs 1974). For Brazil a total of
115 species and four varieties are known, with ca. 100 species being considered endemic to the country (Forzza et
al. 2010). The centre of diversity is south-eastern Brazil with 37 species, of which 32 occur in Minas Gerais; 26
species are endemic to this state. Geographically Dyckia is distributed mostly in the Cerrado with the Atlantic
Domain having 10 species (Forzza et al. 2010, Guarçoni et al. 2012). Recently 11 new species were described
(Leme et al. 2012, Guarçoni et al. 2012) and one, Dyckia strehliana Büneker & Ponte (2013: 285–288), was
published last year.
Material & Methods
Living material of this new species was collected at the type locality in 1978 and has been cultivated in the
collection of the first author where it flowered in 2011. This material was used for this study and a voucher was
preserved for the type specimen that is deposited in the herbarium UFG.
Ta x o no m y
Dyckia piauiensis Esteves & Gouda, sp. nov. Figs. 1, 2A–F.
This new species differs from its closest relative, Dyckia pernambucana, by the following combination of characters: leaf
blades with retrorse spines (vs. antrorse), ca. 4 mm long (vs. 0.5–1.5 mm), shorter inflorescences (5.5–14 cm vs. 25–45 cm
long), shorter floral bracts (ca. 8 mm vs. 10–12 mm long), sepals with apex rounded or emarginate (vs. acute to narrowly
obtuse and apiculate) and filaments highly connate above the common tube with the petals (vs. connate for 2–2.5 mm in a
common tube with the petals) .
Type:—BRAZIL. Piauí: Canto do Buriti, dispersed in dry Cerrado, 335 m elevation, 8°1'9.04" S, 42°56'35.80" W, 335m, July
1978, flowered in cult. September 2011, E. E. Pereira E-375 (holotype UFG!).

Phytotaxa 164 (4) © 2014 Magnolia Press • 297
A NEW DYCKIA SPECIES FROM BRAZIL
FIGURE 1. Dyckia piauiensis (E.E. Pereira 375), at the type habitat.

PEREIRA & GOUDA298 • Phytotaxa 164 (4) © 2014 Magnolia Press
FIGURE 2. Dyckia piauiensis (E.E. Pereira 375). A. Inflorescence and flowers, in cultivation. B. Details of the inflorescence
before anthesis. C. Close up of the leaf rosette. D. Capsules. E. Flower, pistil and the highly connate stamens. F. Dyckia
piauiensis in habitat, growing in the dry soil of the Cerrado Biome.

Phytotaxa 164 (4) © 2014 Magnolia Press • 299
A NEW DYCKIA SPECIES FROM BRAZIL
Plants terrestrial or saxicolous, propagating by basal offsets, flowering 35–120 cm tall, acaulescent. Leaves 19–25
in number, coriaceous, succulent, densely arranged, forming rosettes 45–54 cm in diameter and bearing a bulbous-
like base ca. 5 × 4.6 cm; sheaths 2.6 × 3.8–4.6 cm, the outer ones broadly ovate, the inner ones elongated, the
midsection succulent, concave, both sides brilliant white, but distally slightly castaneous, margins membranaceous,
with minute triangular dark-castaneous spines; blades spreading, green, initially straight, at age slight curved,
triangular-lanceolate, 21–26 cm long, 2.8–3.4 cm wide at the base, both sides finely nerved, at the base densely
appressed lepidote with canescent furfuraceous trichomes between the nerves, toward the apex becoming glabrous
adaxially, margins laxly serrate with spines predominantly retrorse, 0.5–4.3 ×1.8 mm, 3–12 mm apart at the base, to
27 mm apart toward the apex, curved, uncinate, pale yellow at the base, brown toward the apex. Peduncle erect to
slight flexuous, 30–100 cm long, ca. 4 mm in diameter at the base, green, becoming red-rose distally, sparsely
lepidote, internodes 2.1–3.8 mm long; peduncle bracts the lower ones subfoliaceous, ca. 7 cm long, the upper ones
0.8–4.2 cm long, narrowly triangular to sublinear, acuminate and pungent, carinate, the lower ones exceeding the
internodes, exposing most of the peduncle, green to pale-green, soon stramineous, sparsely serrulate with minute
castaneous uncinate spines. Inflorescence simple, rose-red, 5.5–14 cm long, 7–16-flowered, sparsely white
lepidote; rachis slightly curved, ca. 1.6 mm in diameter near the apex; floral bracts broadly ovate, carinate, fleshy
at the base, ca. 8 × 2 mm, rose-red, stramineous after anthesis, acuminate. Flowers ca. 15 mm long (excluding
pedicel), slightly secund (turning horizontal) at anthesis, pedicellate with a thick pedicel up to 3 mm long (in fruit
up to 8 mm long), red, lower few remote but the upper ones densely arranged, ca. 18 mm long, 8 mm diameter;
sepals broadly ovate, 7–9 × 7 mm, strongly convex and incurved, ecarinate, rounded or emarginate, red, fleshy,
surface even, sparsely white lepidote to glabrous toward the apex, margins serrulate with a few minute spines;
petals shortly spathulate, broadly rounded or emarginate, slightly cucullate, 10–13 × 9 mm, dark pinkish-red before
anthesis to orange at anthesis, apex sometimes slightly erodad. Stamens included; filaments highly connate for 7–9
mm above the common tube with the petals; anthers ca. 3 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide at the base, yellow; pistil 9–10
mm long, slightly exceeded by the stamens; ovary narrowly ovoid, 6–7 mm long, ca. 3 mm wide at the base, pale
yellow with white base; style ca. 1 mm long orange; stigma ca. 2 mm long, crisped, orange with yellow margins.
Fruits ovate, 14–17 × 11–13 mm, lustrous, dark-castaneous.
Distribution and habitat:—Dyckia piauiensis is only known from the type collection from the state Piauí,
Brazil. It grows preferably as a terrestrial, but can be occasionally found on rocky outcrops in full sun or sometimes
in semi-shadow under low trees and shrubs in dry Cerrado, associated with other bromeliads, e.g. Bromelia
arenaria Ule (1908: 194), Neoglaziovia variegata (Arruda 1810: 7) Mez (1894: 427) and the cacti Cereus
jamacaru Candolle (1828: 467), Leocereus estevesii Braun (1990: 204), Discocactus piauiensis Braun & Pereira
(1995: 62) and Pilosocereus (Byles & Rowley 1957: 66).
Etymology:—The epithet "piauiensis" is based on the name of the State of Piauí, Brazil, where this new
species was discovered.
Observations:—This new species keys out to Dyckia pernambucana Smith (1970: 179) and has been
compared with it using the description in Smith & Downs (1974) and the extended description provided by Leme
& Siqueira-Filho (2007). It differs from D. pernambucana, its closest relative, by leaf blades with retrorse spines
(vs. antrorse), ca. 4 mm long (vs. 0.5–1.5 mm), shorter inflorescence (5.5–14 cm vs. 25–45 cm long), shorter floral
bracts ( ca. 8 mm vs. 10–12 mm long), sepals with apex rounded or emarginate (vs. acute to narrowly obtuse and
apiculate), and by the filaments highly connate above the common tube with the petals, forming a tube 7–9 mm
long (vs. connate for 2–2.5 mm in a common tube with the petals) .
Acknowledgements
We want to express our gratitude to Prof. emeritus José Ângelo Rizzo and the curator of the Herbarium of Goiânia,
Brazil (Unidade de Conservação Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação, UFG), Dr. Marcos José da Silva. We
want to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and Peter Tristram for checking the
manuscript regarding English language usage.

PEREIRA & GOUDA300 • Phytotaxa 164 (4) © 2014 Magnolia Press
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