Passiflora fissurosa, a new species of passifloraceae from amazon, Brazil

Abstract

Passiflora fissurosa M.A.D. Souza sp. nov., presently known only from the Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve in Amazonian Brazil, is described and illustrated. P. fissurosa belongs in the subgenus Passiflora, Supersection Passiflora, Section Laurifoliae and Series Laurifoliae, with simple, entire leaves, a biglandular petiole, free foliaceous stipules larger than 1 cm, in the group of species with the outer two series of the corona sub-equal. Morphologically it resembles P. nitida, which differs by the horizontal curved with erect-divergent margin operculum, the presence of a nectariferous ring, vertical limen and glabrous ovary. The epithet is derived from the characteristic of the bark, which is corky and profoundly fissured, which is showed only by P. phellos of the Laurifoliae group which has the first series of the corona smaller than the second.