Dyckia piauiensis Esteves & Gouda, 2014

Dyckia piauiensis Esteves & Gouda View in CoL , sp. nov. Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 , 2A–F View FIGURE 2 .

This new species differs from its closest relative, Dyckia pernambucana , by the following combination of characters: leaf blades with retrorse spines (vs. antrorse), ca. 4 mm long (vs. 0.5–1.5 mm), shorter inflorescences (5.5–14 cm vs. 25–45 cm long), shorter floral bracts (ca. 8 mm vs. 10–12 mm long), sepals with apex rounded or emarginate (vs. acute to narrowly obtuse and apiculate) and filaments highly connate above the common tube with the petals (vs. connate for 2–2.5 mm in a common tube with the petals).

Type:— BRAZIL. Piauí: Canto do Buriti, dispersed in dry Cerrado , 335 m elevation, 8°1'9.04" S, 42°56'35.80" W, 335m, July 1978, flowered in cult. September 2011, E. E. Pereira E-375 (holotype UFG!) GoogleMaps .

Plants terrestrial or saxicolous, propagating by basal offsets, flowering 35–120 cm tall, acaulescent. Leaves 19–25 in number, coriaceous, succulent, densely arranged, forming rosettes 45–54 cm in diameter and bearing a bulbouslike base ca. 5 × 4.6 cm; sheaths 2.6 × 3.8–4.6 cm, the outer ones broadly ovate, the inner ones elongated, the midsection succulent, concave, both sides brilliant white, but distally slightly castaneous, margins membranaceous, with minute triangular dark-castaneous spines; blades spreading, green, initially straight, at age slight curved, triangular-lanceolate, 21–26 cm long, 2.8–3.4 cm wide at the base, both sides finely nerved, at the base densely appressed lepidote with canescent furfuraceous trichomes between the nerves, toward the apex becoming glabrous adaxially, margins laxly serrate with spines predominantly retrorse, 0.5–4.3 × 1.8 mm, 3–12 mm apart at the base, to 27 mm apart toward the apex, curved, uncinate, pale yellow at the base, brown toward the apex. Peduncle erect to slight flexuous, 30–100 cm long, ca. 4 mm in diameter at the base, green, becoming red-rose distally, sparsely lepidote, internodes 2.1–3.8 mm long; peduncle bracts the lower ones subfoliaceous, ca. 7 cm long, the upper ones 0.8–4.2 cm long, narrowly triangular to sublinear, acuminate and pungent, carinate, the lower ones exceeding the internodes, exposing most of the peduncle, green to pale-green, soon stramineous, sparsely serrulate with minute castaneous uncinate spines. Inflorescence simple, rose-red, 5.5–14 cm long, 7–16-flowered, sparsely white lepidote; rachis slightly curved, ca. 1.6 mm in diameter near the apex; floral bracts broadly ovate, carinate, fleshy at the base, ca. 8 × 2 mm, rose-red, stramineous after anthesis, acuminate. Flowers ca. 15 mm long (excluding pedicel), slightly secund (turning horizontal) at anthesis, pedicellate with a thick pedicel up to 3 mm long (in fruit up to 8 mm long), red, lower few remote but the upper ones densely arranged, ca. 18 mm long, 8 mm diameter; sepals broadly ovate, 7–9 × 7 mm, strongly convex and incurved, ecarinate, rounded or emarginate, red, fleshy, surface even, sparsely white lepidote to glabrous toward the apex, margins serrulate with a few minute spines; petals shortly spathulate, broadly rounded or emarginate, slightly cucullate, 10–13 × 9 mm, dark pinkish-red before anthesis to orange at anthesis, apex sometimes slightly erodad. Stamens included; filaments highly connate for 7–9 mm above the common tube with the petals; anthers ca. 3 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide at the base, yellow; pistil 9–10 mm long, slightly exceeded by the stamens; ovary narrowly ovoid, 6–7 mm long, ca. 3 mm wide at the base, pale yellow with white base; style ca. 1 mm long orange; stigma ca. 2 mm long, crisped, orange with yellow margins. Fruits ovate, 14–17 × 11–13 mm, lustrous, dark-castaneous.

Distribution and habitat:— Dyckia piauiensis is only known from the type collection from the state Piauí, Brazil. It grows preferably as a terrestrial, but can be occasionally found on rocky outcrops in full sun or sometimes in semi-shadow under low trees and shrubs in dry Cerrado, associated with other bromeliads, e.g. Bromelia arenaria Ule (1908: 194) , Neoglaziovia variegata (Arruda 1810: 7) Mez (1894: 427) and the cacti Cereus jamacaru Candolle (1828: 467) , Leocereus estevesii Braun (1990: 204) , Discocactus piauiensis Braun & Pereira (1995: 62) and Pilosocereus ( Byles & Rowley 1957: 66) .

Etymology:—The epithet "piauiensis" is based on the name of the State of Piauí, Brazil, where this new species was discovered.

Observations:—This new species keys out to Dyckia pernambucana Smith (1970: 179) and has been compared with it using the description in Smith & Downs (1974) and the extended description provided by Leme & Siqueira-Filho (2007). It differs from D. pernambucana , its closest relative, by leaf blades with retrorse spines (vs. antrorse), ca. 4 mm long (vs. 0.5–1.5 mm), shorter inflorescence (5.5–14 cm vs. 25–45 cm long), shorter floral bracts (ca. 8 mm vs. 10–12 mm long), sepals with apex rounded or emarginate (vs. acute to narrowly obtuse and apiculate), and by the filaments highly connate above the common tube with the petals, forming a tube 7–9 mm long (vs. connate for 2–2.5 mm in a common tube with the petals).