Taxonomic revision, distribution and ecology of Wendlandiella (Arecaceae: Arecoideae: Chamaedoreeae)

ABSTRACT

The neotropical palm genus Wendlandiella (Arecoideae: chamaedoreeae) is here revised based on a thorough study of 119 samples deposited in 18 international herbaria, as well as the analysis of fresh material sampled from the wild in Peru or cultivated individuals in international botanical gardens. Wendlandiella is mainly distributed in the Peruvian Amazon but also reaches northern Bolivia, western Brazil (Acre) and southern Ecuador, at altitudes ranging from 100 to 700 m. The present revision confirms former preliminary circumscriptions of the genus and recognises one polymorphic species Wendlandiella gracilis, with three varieties (gracilis, polyclada and simplicifrons), separated on a restricted set of morphological characters, as well as their geographical distribution. Neotypes for the species W. gracilis and the variety polyclada are here proposed.

KEYWORDS:

• Palms
• understorey
• evolution
• Neotropics
• Amazon

Acknowledgements

The present study was undertaken in the frame of the Master project carried out by the first author (JE) at the Agroparitech – University of Montpellier (France) and the Conservatory and Botanic Gardens of Geneva (CJBG, Switzerland). Throughout this work we were also supported by the staff of the herbarium and the library of the CJBG. Particular thanks go to the Director of the CJBG, Dr Pierre-André Loizeau, who kindly hosted this project. We thank Dr James Tregear and Myriam Collin (Palm Development Biology Research Group at IRD – Montpellier, France) for making available fresh material of Wendlandiella gracilis var. polyclada cultivated at the greenhouses of their institution. Several aspects on the morphology of Wendlandiella were completed thanks to the high-resolution pictures or observations shared by Cesar Grandes (curator of the AMAZ – Iquitos Herbarium). We are indebted to the Instituto Plantarum and its director, the Brazilian agronomist and botanist Harri Lorenzi, together with the Brazilian plant collector Mauricio Moureira Caixeta, who shared with us informative pictures and images on cultivated individuals of Wendlandiella. We are particularly indebted to the curators of the herbaria AAU, B, BH, CEN, F, FTG, G, HAL, INPA, LPB, MO, NY and WU for making available loans of the material employed in this study. We dedicate this paper to our colleagues Jean-Christophe Pintaud (1970–2015) and Gloria Galeano (1958–2016), worldwide renowned palm experts and great lovers of Amazonian palms.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Economic support to JE was generously provided by the city of Geneva (research internship). HB was supported through the project Palm Harvest Impacts in Tropical Forest – PALMS [FP7-ENB-2007-1; EU Grant Agreement 212631] and the Danish Council for Independent Research – Natural Sciences [grant #4181-00158 to HB].