CYRTOSPERMA HAYII
PROTOLOGUE:
Cyrtosperma hayii Raynalta, M.R.Hariri & A.S.D.Irsyam, published in Phytotaxa 641(3): 235–237 (20 March 2024), "Cyrtosperma hayii (Araceae, Lasioideae), a unique new species with downward-pointing spines from Southwest Papua Province, Indonesia".
⚠ Type and description not yet transcribed: the paper is paywalled and only its citation metadata was captured.²
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION:
New Guinea: New Guinea (Southwest Papua Province).¹,²
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
⚠ To be taken from the protologue. The diagnostic character given in the title is downward-pointing spines, unique in the genus: in Hay's 1988 key spines mixed straight and down-turned characterize Podolasia, while Cyrtosperma has spines straight and up-turned or all up-turned, so this species breaks that distinction.²,⁴
INFLORESCENCE:
⚠ To be taken from the protologue. Placed by Hariri et al. (2024) in the Macrotum group, whose spathe is not convolute below and whose flowers are tetra-, penta- or hexamerous.⁵
ECOLOGY:
⚠ To be taken from the protologue; lowland forest of the Sorong region.²
DISTRIBUTION MAPS:
None seen.
ETYMOLOGY:
For Alistair Hay, monographer of the genus and author of six of its species.
NOTES:
1. The fourth member of the Macrotum group, with C. macrotum, C. beccarianum and C. prasinispathum, and like the last described from the Sorong region of Southwest Papua in 2024.⁵
2. Cyrtosperma prasinispathum also carries some downward-pointing spines among mostly upward ones,⁵ so the character is a matter of degree between the two Sorong species.
3. A single wild iNaturalist observation from 2026 is the only photograph available to the build.³
STORY:
STORY TITLE: Named for the monographer, and it broke his key
Hay's key separating Cyrtosperma from its Old World allies rests partly on the spines: straight and up-turned, or all up-turned. It is one of the characters that holds the genus apart from Lasia, Lasimorpha and Podolasia.
In 2024 Raynalta and colleagues described a new species from Indonesian New Guinea, named it for Hay, and recorded its spines as pointing down.
A species named in someone's honor, quietly dismantling one of their diagnostic characters. The protologue sits behind a paywall in Phytotaxa; four photographs on iNaturalist show the living plant.
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Cyrtosperma hayii.
3. iNaturalist: Cyrtosperma hayii
4. Hay, A. 1988. Cyrtosperma (Araceae) and its Old World allies. Blumea 33: 427–469
Additional photos from iNaturalist by Hakim