Hydnophytum contortum var. ledermannii, 2019

f. var. ledermannii (Valeton) Jebb & C.R.Huxley , stat. nov. — Fig. 14 View Fig ; Map 3 View Map 3

Basionym: Hydnophytum ledermannii Valeton, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 61 (1927) 134. — Type: Ledermann 12925 (B presumed lost), Papua New Guinea, Sepik River. Epitype Valeton drawing (= Fig 14 View Fig ).

Description ex Valeton.

Tuber stock pendulous, 0.5 m diam. Stems round. Branches slightly flattened, rugose-furfuraceous, nodes thickened, internodes 2–5 cm long. Leaves shortly petiolate, 0.2–0.3 cm, lamina generally elliptic 45–65–75 by 22–38 mm, subacuminate acute, base generally obtuse or subrotund, leathery, drying reddish olive. Midrib prominent below, obliterated towards apex; nerves c. 8 inconspicuous below, scarcely visible above, erectspreading curved. Inflorescences in prominently swollen nodes, base of leaves almost adnate to deeply immersed in slender young bracts, on the inside completely clothed with long, dense, totally enclosed, brown hairs, exserted at anthesis, opening unknown, probably long-styled. Calyx cupuliform, short 1.5 mm, much longer than disc. Corolla club-like in bud, below the anthers somewhat constricted within, with a swollen annulus, with dense hairs below the apparently sessile anthers, towards the lobes the hairs erect amongst the anthers and equally long, lobes glabrous, tube 2 mm; lobes 1.5 mm; anthers 1.5 mm. Style twice as long as tube *. Fruit red. Pyrenes obovoid 2.5 by 1.5 mm, flattened; apex truncate; base acute; abaxially convex with 2 slight grooves.

Ecology & Habitat — 1500 m.

Distribution — Papua New Guinea (Sepik Province).

Conservation status — Vulnerable (VU) under criteria D2 with only the type specimen known.

Note — We have not found the type, or any matching specimen, and the description is taken from Valeton (1927) and manuscript drawings of the flower and pyrene (Leiden MS). The description clearly places this taxon in the H. petiolatum complex, whilst the leaf and pyrene shape isolate it from the other varieties.