Gingersrus Database Taxon ID 7626Costus cochabambaeOLD NAME: Costus sp. nov. NEW NAME: Costus cochabambae NAME CHANGE NOTES: New species published March 22, 2023 in PhytoKeys 222: 75-127, from Cochabamba, Bolivia FULL SCIENTIFIC NAME: Costus cochabambae Maas & H.Maas STATUS : sp. nov. CONTINENT: Neotropical FIELD OBSERVATIONS:(If field observations are available, you can click on the link to open in a new window.) PHOTOS:(If photos are available, you can click on the link to open in a new window.) GOOGLE PHOTO ALBUM SYNONYMS: BOTANICAL NOTES: Costus cochabambaewas published March 22, 2023 in PhytoKeys 222: 75-127 by Paul and Hiltje Maas. It is being described from the type collection, Beck 7320 from Cochabamba, Bolivia near Villa Tunari along the road to El Beni/Chipiriri. A photo accompanied that collection as shown below on this page. No additional specimens were noted. Maas says that this new species superficially resembles Costus comosus, but differs by greenish appendaged bracts (instead of red) as well as a longer ligule and differences in the indumenta. Only one other collection (Clark 6803) has been determined by Dr. Maas to possibly belong to this new species. That specimen was collected along the old road to El Palmar, a location where I observed the normal red bracted C. comosus. (See observation at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5289295) Due to the lack of other specimens I wonder if it is possible that in reality this could be a hybrid. It would be good to visit the locality and see whether or not there is an established population there and whether there are other species that could account for the differences from the form of Costus comosus that is fairly common in this region. The entire Costus comosus complex needs to be studied to determine if it is really composed of several separate species and should be split. It is possilble that the populations from Bolivia and Peru will be determined to be the same as this new species, Costus cochabambae, and if so this species will be expanded to include the red-bracted plants in this region. A sample from the Beck collection was included in the molecular phylogeny and was found to be in the same clade as the red-bracted Bolivian specimen of Costus comosus.
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