Friesodielsia papuana Ezedin, 2024

2. Friesodielsia papuana Ezedin View in CoL , sp. nov. — Fig. 2 View Fig , 3 View Fig ; Map 1 View Map 1

Similar to F.glauca but differs by its longer laminas,longer flowering pedicels, larger sepals,petals, and in the fruits generally bearing more monocarps. — Type: Hartley 12278 (holo A [ A00871713 , A00871714 ]; iso L [ L.1765022], LAE [65442], RSA [ RSA 0448536]), Papua New Guinea, Morobe, Bunga River about 15 miles NE of Lae , 15 m, 24 Oct. 1963 (fl) .

Etymology. After the island of New Guinea.

Woody climbers when adults, upright to scrambling trees or shrubs when juvenile. Indument largely absent but sometimes sparsely present on young twigs and petioles, hairs simple, yellowish, appressed. Twigs slender, terete, upright to twining, when young glabrous green to light(-dark) brown, when older greyish brown to black, often lenticellate. Leaves narrowly oblong when juvenile to narrowly elliptic when mature, (7.5–)13–19(–24) by 2.9–5.5(–6) cm, chartaceous, glossy dark green above and glaucous blue-green below in vivo, (light-) dark brown above and glaucous light brown below in sicco, apex acuminate when juvenile and rounded to acute when adult, base obtuse to rounded when juvenile and rounded to subcordate when adult, margins entire, undulate in juveniles; petioles 3–5 mm long, grooved, glabrous, (light) green in vivo, black in sicco; venation eucamptodromous, primary vein sharply impressed above, prominent below, number of secondary veins (9–)11–17(–21), weakly impressed above, slightly raised below, spaced 12 –21 mm apart, tertiary veins inconspicuous to weakly prominent above, straight percurrent, c. 45° to the primary vein, quaternary veins somewhat irregular, straight (to forked) percurrent. Flowers solitary, internodal, supra-axillary, (whitish to) light orange at anthesis; pedicel (2–)3.5–4.5 by c. 0.1 cm, sparsely appressed hairy to subglabrous; bract borne at 1/3 the distance from the base, triangular, c. 3 by 1–1.5 mm, outer side densely appressed hairy, inner side glabrous; sepals 3, free, triangular, c. 8 by 4 mm, apex acute, glabrous; outer petals 3, narrowly obovate triangular, c. 55 by 6–9 mm, glabrous; inner petals 3, c. 1/4 as long as the outer petals, 14–16 by 3–4 mm, glabrous; stamens many, in 4–5 series, 1.5–2 mm long, connective apex truncate, pentagonal, irregular, curved away from thecae towards the stigmatic center, without prominent prolongation; carpels many, in 3–4 series, 4–5 mm long, stigmas c. 2 mm long, apex hairy, ovaries c. 2 mm long, densely golden brown hairy, ovules 1 per ovary. Fruits consisting of (9–)13–28 monocarps, each aggregate cluster up to 4.3 cm wide; pedicel 3.5–4 by 0.1–0.2 cm, subwoody, thickened distally; stipe 6–8 mm long; monocarps subglobose to ovoid, 7–10 by 4–6 mm, apex mucronate, yellow to reddish then maturing purple, pericarp thin. Seeds ovoid, 6–8 by 5–6.5 mm, testa yellow brown.

Distribution — Indonesian Papua and Papua New Guinea.

Habitat & Ecology — Occurs in lowlands to lower montane forests up to 1 060 m a.s.l. Appears to be more commonly associated with ridges and steep slopes in hill forest. Thus far known from the Papuan Peninsula region on the PNG side and from the Vogelkop Peninsula and Aru Islands on the Indonesian side. The species appears to grow in a wide variety of substrates including clayey and sandy soils. Flowering: June–December; fruiting: February–November; it likely flowers and fruits year round. In the floral chamber of the type specimen, Hartley 12278, several small beetles representing at least three distinct species were found. They belong to the families Nitidulidae and Staphylinidae , which have been previously recorded in Annonaceae and species of the latter have been recorded previously in F. borneensis (Miq.) Steenis as active vectors of pollen ( Gottsberger & Webber 2017, Lau et al. 2017). Fruit dispersers unknown.

Vernacular name — Ipé kapé simi (Magɨ).

Uses — Semi-dried leaves are used as rolling paper in the making of traditional cigarettes (Wanang).

Conservation status — Least Concern ( LC). This species has a broad distribution across New Guinea, including the Aru Islands. It appears to occupy various types of lowland forest habitats on various substrates, thus lessening the impacts of any potential threat. At the WFDP, this species appears to be rather infrequent with only ten juvenile individuals having been counted (mistakenly as ‘trees’) in the most recent plot census. However, this is an artifact since adult individuals are not counted in the census due to being lianescent. Therefore, an assessment of LC is given here ( IUCN 2022) .

Specimens examined ( paratypes). INDONESIA, Maluku, Aru Islands Regency, P. Kobroor, Kp. Kobroor , S6°15' E134°45', 10 m, 26 Mar. 1993 (fr), van Balgooy & Mamesah 6467 ( L [ L.1765063, L.1765064, L.1765065, U.1072544]) GoogleMaps ; ibid., 27 Mar.1993 (fr), van Balgooy & Mamesah 6484 ( L [ L.4345925]) GoogleMaps ; West Papua, Sorong , behind Kp. Baroe, 28 July 1948 (fl), Djamahari 408 ( BO [1371791], L [ L.1765014]) . – PAPUA NEW GUINEA, Central, Mori River, Abau subdist., 240 m, S10°10' E148°20', 13 Feb. 1969 (fr), Henty & Lelean NGF 41857 ( L [ L.1765013], LAE [111521]) GoogleMaps ; Central,between the villages of Kubuna and Baikodu on the road to Tapini , 220 m, 5 Sept. 1998 (st), Katik & Rali 482 ( LAE [272812]) ; Madang, S of the Gogol River near Mawan village (c. 25 km inland), 60 m, 22 June 1955 (fl), Hoogland 4924 ( LAE [8783]) ; Madang, near Swire Station, Usino-Bundi district , S5°13'39" E145°4'47", 80–180 m, 14 Nov. 2022 (st), Ezedin 1395 ( MIN) GoogleMaps ; Morobe, Heldsbach , 212 m, S6°28' E147°48', 13 Sept. 1935 (st), Clemens 115 ( L [ L.1765021]) GoogleMaps ; ibid., 9 Nov. 1935 (fr), Clemens 886 ( L [ L.1765020]) GoogleMaps ; Morobe, Bulolo Valley , 1067 m, 6 June 1956 (fr), Womersley & Jones NGF 8815 ( A [ A00871715 ], LAE [9009: 2 shts]) ; Morobe, W of Bulolo, near Bulolo-Watut divide, S7°10' E146°40', 792 m, 20 Dec. 1965 (fl), Frodin & Hill NGF 26345 ( L [ L.1765015], LAE [76254]) GoogleMaps ; Morobe, Mt. Susu, Bulolo , S7°10' E146°40', 910 m, 8 Aug. 1967 (fl), Streimann & Kairo NGF 30743 ( A, L [ L.1760504]) GoogleMaps ; Morobe, Hills near Taraka , S6°39' E146°56', 150 m, Mar. 2006 (fr), Takeuchi & Ama 20985 ( K [ K001870511 ], L [ L.3729202, L.3729203]) GoogleMaps .

Notes — 1. Friesodielsia papuana looks similar to F. glauca , which is a variable and complex species found primarily in western Malesia ( Satthaphorn et al. 2024). Although there are several specimens of the latter species observed with overlapping character states, the New Guinea specimens appear to be distinct. A morphological comparison of useful traits between the two species and a couple others is provided in Table 1.

2. It should be noted that the juvenile morphology of F. papuana appears to differ from that of adult individuals. When juvenile, its growth is upright to scrambling and thus its habit may appear as that of a small tree or shrub (pers. obs.). During this juvenile phase, the leaves are often narrower, much longer (up to c. 38 cm long), more narrowly elliptic-oblong with the apices long-acuminate, and the margins undulate ( Fig. 2 View Fig , 3a View Fig ). In its adult stage, its habit is that of a true woody climber and the leaves become broader and the apex not as strongly taper- ing ( Fig. 3b View Fig ). These observations are further substantiated by those made by the indigenous landowners (pers. comm.), who recognize the juvenile and adult morphologies as part of the same taxon. The flowers are described as white ( Djamahari 408), yellow and red ( Streimann & Kairo NGF 30743), or pale yellow and weakly fragrant ( van Balgooy & Mamesah 6467).

3. The specimen chosen as the type was included in the phylogenetic study by Guo et al. (2018b: f. 6, S2), where it was found to resolve in clade II of the genus, sister to F. longiflora (Merr.) Steenis of the Philippines with questionable support. Despite this, it was still found to be nested in a well-supported subclade consisting of Filipino and Malayan species: F. bakeri , F. latifolia (Hook.f. & Thomson) Steenis , F. paucinervis (Merr.) Steenis.Biogeographic analyses point to the ancestor of F. papuana arriving from the Philippines ( Guo et al. 2018b: f. S3, S4).