Gingersrus Database Taxon ID 4325Dimerocostus rurrenabaqueanusOLD NAME: Dimerocostus strobilaceus subsp. gutierrezii NEW NAME: Dimerocostus rurrenabaqueanus NAME CHANGE NOTES: Former subspecies gutierrezii is replaced due to reinterpretation of holotype and observations at type locality. Blumea: Biodiversity, Evolution and Biogeography of Plants, 70(1), 1-115. FULL SCIENTIFIC NAME: Dimerocostus rurrenabaqueanus (Kuntze) Maas & H.Maas STATUS : stat. nov. CONTINENT: Neotropical FIELD OBSERVATIONS:(If field observations are available, you can click on the link to open in a new window.) FIELD OBSERVATIONS PHOTOS:(If photos are available, you can click on the link to open in a new window.) GOOGLE PHOTO ALBUM SYNONYMS: - Dimerocostus tessmannii Loes. (1929) - Dimerocostus williamsii J.F.Macbr. (1931) BOTANICAL NOTES: Published in 2026, this former subspecies of D. strobilaceus is now a separate species and the name D. rurrenabaqueanus will be applied in lieu of D. gutierrezii, due to misinterpretation of that type specimen. In his 1972 monograph Paul Maas described three subspecies of the species Dimerocostus strobilaceus. One of these was subspecies gutierrezii which was based upon an 1892 collection in southern Bolivia on the Rio Yapacanà by Otto Kuntze. The holotype at NY is in poor condition and contains only an inflorescence, lacking leaves or stems that might be used to further identify the taxon. On the tag at the NYBG herbarium there is a note interpreting the locality of the collection as the town of Puerto Gutiérrez at 17° 11' S, 63° 57' W. The explanation of the locality as given in 1898 by Kuntze himself is (translated from the German): "Bolivia: common on the Rio Yapacani, especially at the 'Puerto', the shipping point, which is used by Dr. Guttierez in San Ignazio and to which he had an 8 leagues long path, 5 of which were made through primeval forest." The Kuntze description in Rivisio Generum Planterum III.III, pg 301-302 is as basic as the specimen and gives no information whatsoever about the flowers. In March of 2017 I traveled to that region to look for the living plants to see what Kuntze' Dimerocostus gutierrezii might look like in vivo. What I found was all consistent in form to Dimerocostus argenteus, throughout the region on both sides of the Rio YapicanÃ, from a small reserve south of Buena Vista to the La Chonta sector of the Amboro National Park. This form has leaves with silvery undersides and a hooded pale yellow flower - with no morphological basis to describe the Kuntze plant as a separate species. When I later explained what I had found and showed my photos to Paul Maas, he agreed that the plants growing there are examples of D. argenteus, and that the Kuntze type specimen had been misinterpreted. He decided to use the next oldest name for the form he had been calling D. strobilaceus subsp. gutierrezii, and chose Dimerocostus rurrenabaqueanus as the substitute. Dimerocostus rurrenabaqueanus can easily be distinguished from D. argenteus, D. cryptocalyx and D. appendiculatus because it does not have leafy appendages to the bracts. The difficulty is distinguishing between D. rurrenabaqueanus and D. strobilaceus. As now published, D. rurrenabaqueanus can be distinguished from D. strobilaceus as follows: Generally speaking, the white flowering forms are all found from southern Ecuador north while the yellow flowering forms are found in Peru and points south and east. The problem in distinguishing these two species is in the intermediates which have bright yellow flowers with a wide, flat labellum and do not have the "hoods". I think this will only be resolved with more extensive sampling of the genetics. As for the Kuntz specimen from Bolivia, I have now updated the datasheet for Dimerocostus gutierrezii as a synonym for D. argenteus.
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