MONSTERA MADERAVERDE
PROTOLOGUE: Monstera maderaverde Grayum & Karney, published in Economic Botany 66: 209 (2012).
Monstera maderaverde Grayum & Karney, sp. nov. Type: Honduras. Atlántida: Mezapita Cloud Forest, Cordillera Nombre de Dios, ca. 7.2 km SSE of Mezapita (as the crow flies), on ridge forming the divide between the basins of the Ríos Mezapa and Mezapita, 15°30′39″ N, 87°19′41″ W, 1160 m, 7 Nov. 2010, Alex Karney s.n. (holotype: MO-6240501, MO-6240502; isotype: CURLA).
SYNONYMS:
OTHER NAMES: Mimbre, Mimbrillo, Bejuco (Honduras)
DISTRIBUTION: Honduras: Honduras.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Honduras: Atlántida.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Nomadic vine, appressed-climbing and pendent habit. Seedlings: bearing foliose leaves. Juvenile plants: root climbers; blades apparently not appressed to the phorophyte; fenestrations absent. Adult plants: root climbers; stems green; internodes 12.5–17.5 cm long, 0.7–1.0 cm diam., 17.5–18.0 times longer than wide; petiole smooth, 12.5–17.5 cm long, sheathed 4–6 cm before base of the geniculum; petiole sheath marcescent to deciduous; unsheathed portion terete; geniculum 0.5–0.8 cm long; blades ovate to suborbicular, truncate to cordulate at base, short-acuminate at apex, coriaceous, 12.8–16.0 × 8.0–14.6 cm, drying blackish, slightly shorter to slightly longer than petiole; midrib ribbed adaxially, prominent abaxially; primary lateral veins 2–4 per side, poorly defined per side, departing midrib at 35–50°; secondary veins parallel (or reticulated towards the margin); margins entire; perforations absent or occasionally present (at least 1.5 cm in diam.).³
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences on pendent, erect stems; peduncle terete, smooth, 9–13 cm long, 0.3 cm diam.; spathe obtuse to mucronate, light green during development, yellow suffused with green tint externally and white internally at anthesis, completely open at apex, 4–6 × 4–5 cm, as long as the spadix; spadix unknown during development, white suffused with a yellow tint at anthesis, 4.8–7.8 cm long, 1.6–2.2 cm diam.; basal sterile flowers slender towards base; fertile flowers 4–7 mm long; anthers 1 mm long; ovary 3–4 × 2–3 mm; style hexagonal; stigma linear; berries with a greenish stylar cap during development, mature stylar cap yellowish at base and dark green towards base; pulp white; seeds unknown.³
ECOLOGY:
Monstera maderaverde is endemic to Honduras, known only from the type locality in the Cordillera Nombre de Dios, at 1160 m, in cloud forest in a Premontane wet forest life zone. Flowering in November.³
ETYMOLOGY:
Monstera maderaverde is known locally most commonly as "mimbre" ("wicker"), and occasionally as "mimbrillo" or "bejuco" ("vine"). The specific epithet, maderaverde, refers to the non-profit Fundación Madera Verde, working with communities where this new aroid is known.²
NOTES:
1. The species, a member of sect. Tornelia, is characterized by it hemiepiphytic, somewhat scandent habit, slender stems with a somewhat flaking epidermis, long-petiolate leaves, slender inconspicuously sheathed petioles, broadly ovate, weakly veined, acuminate, dark gray-brown-drying blades which are broadly rounded at base with weak venation, and long-pedunculate inflorescence with a narrowly obovate spadix. Monstera maderaverde could be confused with the Costa Rican endemic Monstera luteynii, with which it shares leathery leaf-blades of similar size and shape (Karney & Grayum 2012). But it differs because Monstera luteynii belongs to the sect. Marcgraviopsis Madison with juvenile plants with shingle-forming leaves, adult with pendulous stem habit, shorter petioles (8–13 cm long), and larger spadices (6–8 × 1.7–2.0 cm) on shorter peduncles (3–5 cm long). (Karney & Grayum 2012).³
STORY:
STORY TITLE: Mimbre
Monstera maderaverde is known in the Cordillera Nombre de Dios of Honduras as mimbre, the Spanish word for wicker, and occasionally as mimbrillo or simply bejuco, vine.² The name travels: in Colombia mimbre is Heteropsis oblongifolia and in Costa Rica Philodendron rigidifolium, other hemiepiphytic aroids of the same forests.² The epithet honors the non-profit Fundación Madera Verde, which works with the communities where the plant grows.²
It was described in 2012 from the Mezapita cloud forest at 1160 m, where it flowers in May, June and November, and it is known from nowhere else, which leaves it Data Deficient under the IUCN criteria.² Its nearest look-alike is the Costa Rican Monstera luteynii, with leathery blades of the same size and shape, but that species belongs to a different section, shingles as a juvenile, and hangs as an adult on shorter petioles with larger spadices.³
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Monstera maderaverde Grayum & Karney
2. Economic Botany 66: 209 (2012) — protologue.