SYNGONIUM CASTROI
PROTOLOGUE: Syngonium castroi , published in Phytologia 82: 52 (1997).
Syngonium castroi Grayum, sp. nov. Species aspectu cum Syngonio llanoensi Croat optime congruens, sed differt vagina petiolari usque ad basim laminae plerumque non extensa inflorescentiis multo parvioribus. Type: COSTA RICA. Puntarenas: P. N. Corcovado, Cerro Brujo, 8°38'N, 83°35'W, 600 m, 23 Jan 1991, E. Castro 242 (holotype: USJ-49640).
DISTRIBUTION: Costa Rica (Osa Pen.): Costa Rica, Puntarenas.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Costa Rica: Puntarenas.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Nomadic vine; stems appressed-climbing; Leaves with petioles (9)20–21 cm, sheathed for 75–100% their total length, the cross-sectional shape unknown; blades simple, 17.6–32.9 long, 4.9–7.4(8.6) cm wide, lanceolate to lanceolate-elliptic or oblanceolate, cuneate or rounded to the minutely auriculate base (auricles to ca 4.5 x 3.5 mm directed more or less backward), brittle; primary lateral veins [2]8–9 per side.³
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences 3 per axil; peduncle to at least 6.3 cm; spathe white; spadix ca 3.8 x 0.9 cm, yellow. Ripe fruits unknown. Fruiting in January.³
ECOLOGY:
The species is endemic to Costa Rica, known only from the Osa Peninsula (and at the head of Golfo Dulce) in Puntarenas Province in Costa Rica, 600 m occurring in a Tropical wet forest transition to Premontane wet forest life zone.³
ETYMOLOGY:
Named for Emilio Castro, formerly associated with the USJ herbarium, who collected the type, the first fertile specimen of the species, in Parque Nacional Corcovado on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica in January 1991.²
NOTES:
1. Syngonium castroi is a member of sect. Cordata and is characterized by simple, narrow leaf blades that are minutely auriculate at the base, and by its small, apically subtruncate spadices. The species with the most similar leaf blade is the Panamanian Syngonium llanoense Croat which differs in having the petiole sheath virtually always extending to the leaf base, and by its much larger inflorescences, usually more than twice as long as that of Syngonium castroi. Syngonium castroi is also similar to the sympatric Syngonium laterinervium Croat but the latter also has larger inflorescences (in addition to consistently trifoliolate leaf blades).³
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Syngonium castroi
2. Phytologia 82: 52 (1997) — protologue.