Monstera cedenoi (Araceae: Monsteroideae), a new glaucous species with pinkish spathes endemic to Costa Rica (Central America)

From Firenze University Press Journal: Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography (Webbia)

Orlando O. Ortiz, Universidad de Panamá, Herbario PMA, Estafeta Universitaria

Thomas B. Croat, Missouri Botanical Garden

Jason M. Hughes, 154 Hughes Dr, Camarillo

Monstera Adanson is a Neotropical genus of Araceae comprising about 80 published species, which are generally found in humid tropical forested regions at low to mid elevations, particularly in Central America with more than 50 species (Croat et al. 2024). This genus was revised in its entirety by Madison (1977), but recently Cedeño-Fonseca et al. (2022) and Croat et al. (2024) published comprehensive taxonomic revisions for Costa Rica and Central America, respectively. Despite being a relatively well-known genus in the latter region, new species have been discovered in recent years (Zuluaga and Cameron 2018; Cedeño-Fonseca et al. 2018, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c, 2021a, 2021b), mainly from poorly explored areas of Costa Rica and Panama.Recently, during a scientific expedition carried out in the Pérez Zeledón Cantón, a plant was encountered which presented a particular combina-tion of morphological characters (especially the glaucous petioles and pink-ish spathes), which seemingly allied it to seven species mainly restricted to Costa Rica and/or Panama (except M. glaucescens Croat & Grayum, which occurs from Nicaragua to Colombia): M. bocatorensis Croat & M.Cedeño, M. croatii M.Cedeño & A.Hay, M. epipremnoides Engl., M. gentryi Croat, M.Cedeño & O.Ortiz, M. glaucescens, M. mittermeieri M. Cedeño, and M. oreophila Madison. In this article, M. cedenoi is described and proposed as a species new to science, which so far is restricted to east-ern Costa Rica. Detailed comparisons between the taxonomic novelty and its morphological relatives, and field photographs, are included.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/jopt-16331

Read Full Text: https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/webbia/article/view/16331