Shirley A. Graham

An expanded phylogeny of Cuphea (Lythraceae) and a North American monophyly

A phylogenetic analysis of the New World genus Cuphea was conducted employing sequences from the nuclear rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and chloroplast trnL-trnF spacer and rpl16 intron. The analysis expands the number of Cuphea species from 53 in an earlier ITS study to 70 and adds two chloroplast data sets in order to generate a more complete and robust phylogeny and to test a previous result that suggested the presence of a large North American clade. Results reaffirm the monophyly of Cuphea with Pleurophora as the sister genus and recover a basal divergence event that mirrors the two subgenera of the current classification. Phylogenies of the two chloroplast regions are largely unresolved beyond the initial dichotomy and some resolution at the terminal and subterminal nodes. Based on the ITS phylogeny, five major clades are recognized. Subgenus Cuphea (Clade 1), defined morphologically by the synapomorphic loss of bracteoles, is sister to the much larger subg. Bracteolatae (Clades 2–5). Clades 2–4, comprising the South American and Caribbean species, grade successively to Clade 5, an exclusively North American lineage of 29 species. Among the 12 sections included in the study, only section Trispermum, a subclade of Clade 4, is monophyletic. Section Pseudocircaea is nested within Clade 3, which is largely equivalent to section Euandra. The North American endemic clade includes four sections, of which none are recovered as monophyletic in this study.

Cuphea fluviatilis (Lythraceae), a New Species from Antioquia, Colombia

Abstract Cuphea fluviatilis S. A. Graham, a new species of the Lythraceae from the margins of the Río Samaná in Antioquia Department, Colombia, is described and illustrated. The taxonomic relationships of the species are unsettled. The species bears flowers closely similar to those of species in section Amazoniana (Lourteig) Lourteig, but lacks the distinctive malpighiaceous trichomes characterizing the section; its pollen morphology, a significant indicator of broad relationships in Cuphea, is also unlike that of the section. Pollen of section Amazoniana is typically nonsyncolpate, without protruding pores, and with a psilate to finely rugulate exine; that of C. fluviatilis is syncolpate with protruding pores and a striate exine, a type common to numerous species currently classified in the polyphyletic sections Brachyandra Koehne and Euandra Koehne.

Two New Species in Cuphea (Lythraceae), and a Note on Alzateaceae

Cuphea (sect. Melvilla) alaniana from central Mexico and C. (sect. Diploptychia) armata from Central America are described and illustrated. The monotypic family Alzateaceae, long known from Peru an(i Bolivia, an(i more recently discov- ered in Costa Rica, Panama, an(i Colombia, is here reported from Ecuador for the first time. Of the two Ecuadorian collections, one belongs to the north- ern, broa(I-leaved Alzatea verticillata subsp. ampli- folia; the other is most similar to the southern sub- species verticillata. Apical leaf glands are a newly recognized feature of the genus. They are inter- preted as extra-floral nectaries. In revisionary studies of Cuphea, two new North American species were (tiscovere(t among collections on loan from a number of North American herbaria. Cuphea alaniana is a large-flowered perennial of section Melvilla, subsection Polyspermum (Koehne, 1903). It is one of four species of the subsection, which is endemic to the western an(t southern moun- tains of Mexico. Cuphea armata, discovered in neighboring areas of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras is a new species of section Diploptychia.

New Species, Varieties, and Combinations in Cuphea (Lythraceae) from Brazil

ABSTRACT Six new species and two varieties of Cuphea P. Browne (Lythraceae) are described from Brazilian collections. Cuphea lucens T. B. Cavalcanti & S. A. Graham from Minas Gerais is described in sect. Melvilla Koehne subsect. Pachycalyx Koehne where it is similar to C. cylindracea S. A. Graham but lacks the prominently descending floral tube spur of that species. Cuphea alatosperma T. B. Cavalcanti & S. A. Graham from the Amazon, with inflated-winged seeds, and C. anamariae T. B. Cavalcanti & S. A. Graham, a novelty from white sands in Minas Gerais, belong to sect. Euandra Koehne subsections Platypterus Koehne and Hilariella Koehne, respectively. Cuphea exilis T. B. Cavalcanti & S. A. Graham, C. filiformis T. B. Cavalcanti & S. A. Graham, and C. rupestris T. B. Cavalcanti & S. A. Graham, new species with linear-lanceolate leaves and a woody xylopodium (not confirmed in C. exilis), are members of sect. Euandra subsect. Oidemation Koehne, as are the newly recognized variety C. spermacoce A. St.-Hilaire var. arguta T. B. Cavalcanti & S. A. Graham and the new combination C. spermacoce var. erectifolia (Koehne) T. B. Cavalcanti & S. A. Graham. Lectotypes are selected for C. erectifolia Koehne and two forms of the species. A key to the varieties of C. spermacoce is provided.