PRINCIPES 20 [Vor.. 29 Principes,29(I), I985, pp. 20-22 Aiphanesacaulis, a New Species from Colombia ANDRotRIco BunNer-GoNzersz' Gronre GelseNo-GencEs' Recent explorations for palms in northwestern Colombia have revealed several novelties, one of which, an interesting sternless species of Aiphanes, is described here as new to science. Aiphanes acaulis Galeano& Bernalsp. nov. (Fig. l) Palma solitaria acaulis.Pinnae utrinque lB-30 regulariter in eadem planitie insertae, lineares vel angustissime cuneatae. Spadix simplex. Antherae subquadraticae. Pistillodium inerme. Solitary, acaulescent. Leaves 8-10: sheath I I-16 cm long, I cm wide, fibrous, densely covered abaxially with irregular, dark brown scalesand with purplish-brown, less than 0.5 mm long bristles, usually with a few black, flat spines;petiole I2.550 cm long, with an indumentum of scales and bristles like that of the sheath, rarely armed with spines;rachis 42-75 cm long, adaxially ridged, densely covered with purplish-black, to 5 mm long bristles, and occasionallywith scattered, slender, bicolor, to 2 cm long bristles, abaxially with scaly indumentum like that of the sheath and with inconspicuous,brown, flat, very short (ca. 0.2 mm) bristles;pinnae 18-30 on each side, regularly inserted, horizontally arranged in one plane, linear or very narrowly cuneate, I-nerved, plicate along secondary veins, truncate and prae1 Apartado 51638, Medellin, Colombia. ' Dloartamento de Recursos Forestales,Facultad de Agrbnomia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Apartado 568, Medellin, Colombia. morsely toothed at apex, the upper margin produced into a cauda to 4 cm long, the apical pinnae narrowly cuneate, obliquely truncate at apex, l-3 nerved, all pinnae glabrous above, the midnerve armed with l-3 slender.bicolor. ro 2 cm Iong bristles, glabrous below or with very short, purplish-black bristles scattered on surface and veins; basal pinnae 7-24.5 cm long alongthe uppermargin,0.7-2.I cm wide, central pinnae l0.B-27 cm long, L7-2.5 cm wide,apicalpinnae6.5-15.5 cm long, to 5.6 cm wide at apex. Inflorescencespicate:prophyll 16-26 cm long, 7-lI mm wide, linear, unarmed adaxially, densely covered abaxially with irregular brown scales and with very short, appressed,purplish-brownbristles; peduncular bract 37.5-94 cm long, unarmed, with scattered, appressed, short, brown hairs; pedunclel2-88 cm long, with scattered, very short, purplish-brown bristles; spike l5-3I cm long, densely covered with very short brown bristles; flowers purple, sunken, the pistillate ones distributed along the proximal half or so, each with two staminate flowers above, the distal half with male flowers only. Staminate flowers 1.5-2.5 mm diam., broader than high: sepals imbricate, cucullate, membranaceous,glabrous; petals glabrous, connate for half their length, the lobes ovatel anthers nearly square, pistillode minuteo 3-gibbous. Pistillate flowers slightly larger: sepalsbroadly imbricate, glabrous; petalsvalvate, glabrous;gynoeciumovoid, minutely verruculose, without bristles or spines; staminodial tube toothed. Fruit unknown. GALEANO-G.AND BERNAL-G.:A NEW AIPHANES l. A i p h a n e s a c a u l i s . A , , h a b i tx % s ; B , m i d d l e s e c t i o n o fl e a f x [ ; c , i n f l o r e s c e n e e x l r . Jaramillo lrom Bernal & Galeano 7I. 2l Drawnbyclaraln6s ,, [Vor. 29 PRINCIPES Specimens examined: COLOMBIA, DEPARTAMENTO DEL CHOCO: Municipio de El Carmen, vereda El Doce (carretera Medellin-Quibd6,km l5l), rio Atrato, margen izquierda, 700 m alt., enero 5, I9BO, Bernal & Galeano 7 l (COL, holotype; HUA, K, isotypes), Z2 (COL, HUA); Municipio de Quibd6, Corregimiento de San Francisco de Ich6, rio Ich6, margen derecha, 150 m alt., julio I l, 1981, Galeano& Bernal 454 (COL, HUA,K). Aiphanes acaulis is a very characteristic species; it is readily distinguished from the remaining species by the acaulescent habit, the linear or very narrowly cuneate pinnae and the unbranched inflorescence. In the habit and shape of pinnae it recalls Aiphanes tessrnannii Burret (I932), from Peruo but the latter has an inflorescence with many branches. This species appears to be very uncommon, and only two small populations have been located in the cited regions, although several areas of northwestern Colombia have been explored in search of palms. Although some variation exists between both known populations, particularly in size of leaves and inflorescence, there is no doubt that they are conspecific. Besides A. acaulis, only two species have a spicate inflorescence; both of them are known only from Colombia. Aiphanes simplex Burret has clusteredstems 2-4 m high, and its leavesbear I I-16 crmeate pinnaeon each side;the other species,l. macroloba Burret, has leaves simple or with 3-4 pinnae on each side, and the blade is beset above with very characteristic long, soft bristles, scatteredalong the veins. Two further species,describedwith an unbranchedinflorescence,deservea more detailed discussionand will be the subject of another paper. These are A. chocoensis A. Gentry and A. monostachys Burret. The former has proved to be a synonym of A. macroloba:comparisonof the holotype of A. chocoensiswith topotypes of A. macrol,obaleavesno doubt as to the identity of both species.A; monostachys, on the other handowas basedon a mixed collection, which included the inflorescence of A. macrolobo, as we will prove elsewhere. Both species were described from the samelocality and both have been rediscovered there. The true A. rnonostachys has an inflorescencewith 15-28 rachillae. An emended description of l. rnonostachyswill be provided in the forthcoming paper. Lnrnerunn Clrro Bunnrr, M. 1932. Die Palmengattungen Martinezia tnd Aiphanes. Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin l l : 5 5 7- 5 7 7 . Correctionof PhoneNumberfor Wild PanamaTrip For the trip to Panamawith John O. Wild the correct phonenumber is (6i2) 33I-722L; not area code (606) as given in Principes 2B(4): IBB, October 1984.