Lycianthes gongylodes
Not known.
Lycianthes gongylodes occurs in Guatemala (Departments of Huehuetenango and Quiché), in cloud forest, 2400–3000 m.
Dean, E., M. Reyes, R. Fauré, G. Walden, D. Brandon, D. Canington & D. McNair. 2017. Identification of the species of Lycianthes series Tricolores (Capsiceae, Solanaceae). Systematic Botany 42: 191–209.
Dean, E., J. Poore, M. A. Anguiano-Constante, M. H. Nee, T. Starbuck, A. Rodrigues, and M. Conner. 2020. The genus Lycianthes (Solanaceae, Capsiceae) in Mexico and Guatemala. PhytoKeys 168: 1–333.
Gentry, J. L. Jr. 1973. Studies in Mexican and Central American Solanaceae. Phytologia 26: 265-278.
Gentry, J. L. Jr. and Standley, P. C. 1974. Solanaceae. In Flora of Guatemala. Fieldiana: Botany 24 (part 10) no. 1–2. Chicago, Illinois: Field Museum of Natural History. Pp 1–151.
IUCN [Standards, Petitions Subcommittee] (2019) Guidelines for using the IUCN red list categories and criteria. version 12. Prepared by the Standards and Petitions Subcommittee in February 2019. http://jr.iucnredlist.org/documents/redlistGuidelines [accessed December 10, 2019]
Not known.
Lycianthes gongylodes is a rarely collected species of Guatemala, represented by only four collections, all made before 1970, and none from protected areas. The EOO is 43.078 km2, and the AOO is 12 km2. Based on the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Critically Endangered (CR).
Commentary. Lycianthes gongylodes is known from only four collections that we know of, all collected prior to 1970 by Breedlove, Proctor, and Steyermark (Gentry, 1973; Gentry & Standley, 1974). It is most likely allied to Lycianthes heteroclita (Sendtn.) Bitter, which it shares green herbaceous stems that collapse upon drying. The form of the calyx in the two species is similar, although L. gongylodes differs in having small calyx appendages which make the calyx appear thicker and more bowl-shaped in flower and flat-bottomed in fruit (a feature it shares with Lycianthes connata J. L. Gentry). Lycianthes heteroclita usually lacks appendages on the calyx, which looks campanulate in flower and bowl-shaped to plate-like in fruit; in addition, it usually lacks obvious interpetalar tissue connecting the lobes of the corolla. The curly trichomes that are present on the stems and leaves of L. gongylodes are quite distinctive and different than the very small trichomes present in L. heteroclita; Lycianthes gongylodes lacks the tiny groups of white trichomes that appear like small granules on the calyx of L. heteroclita. Lycianthes gongylodes could also be confused with L. ceratocalycia,(Donn.Sm.) Bitter, another allied species that occurs in the same region of Guatemala and adjacent Mexico. Lycianthes ceratocalycia differs in having purple, stellate corollas with sparse interpetalar tissue and scurfy horizontal lines on the young branches. A sterile specimen of L. gongylodes could be misidentified as L. tricolor (Dun.) Bitter, something that was done in Dean et al. (2017), where Steyermark 49839 (a paratype of L. gongylodes) is cited under L. tricolor.