Heliconia berguidoi (Heliconiaceae), a new species from premontane forest of eastern Panama, is described, illustrated and its conservation status evaluated. H. berguidoi bears pink flowers, an uncommon color in this group. It differs from the Colombian species Heliconia rhodantha and Heliconia sanctae-theresae, the most similar taxa, by the combination of a petiole glabrous except for the woolly base, a very long peduncle, the perianth pubescent at the apex and staminode with cuspidate apex. H. berguidoi is also similar to Heliconia pogonantha in all four of its varieties and to Heliconia ramonensis in two of its four varieties, but differs by a combination of the long peduncle, pink flowers and staminode with cuspidate apex. Fifty-six Heliconia species have been found in Panama, eighteen of them endemic.

Heliconia berguidoi (Heliconiaceae), una nueva especie de bosque premontano del este de Panamá, es descrita, ilustrada y su estado de conservación evaluado. H. berguidoi tiene flores rosadas, color poco común en este grupo. Difiere de las especies de Colombia Heliconia rhodantha y Heliconia sanctae-theresae, taxones más similares, por la combinación de un pecíolo glabro aunque lanudo en la base, pedúnculo muy largo, ápice del perianto pubescente y estaminoide con el ápice cuspidado. H. berguidoi es también similar a Heliconia pogonantha en sus cuatro variedades y a Heliconia ramonensis en dos de sus cuatro variedades, pero difiere por la combinación de su largo pedúnculo, el color rosado de las flores y el estaminoide con ápice cuspidado. En Panamá se han encontrado cincuenta y seis especies de Heliconia, dieciocho de ellas endémicas.

Barbatae , Cerro Chucantí, Griggsia , Heliconia , Heliconiaceae , Serranía de Majé, Zingiberales

Barbatae , Cerro Chucantí, Griggsia , Heliconia , Heliconiaceae , Serranía de Majé, Zingiberales

Heliconia L. is the only genus in the plant family Heliconiaceae, which is included in the order Zingiberales (Berry and Kress 1991, APG IV 2016). This family is native to tropical America (Caribbean islands, Mexico, Central America and South America) with a small number of species in the Old World tropics, distributed from Samoa, westward to the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi (Kress 1984, Kress 1990b, Berry and Kress 1991). Heliconia has been formally and informally divided into five subgenera: Taeniostrobus (Kuntze) Griggs, Heliconia, Stenochlamys Baker, Griggsia L.Andersson and Heliconiopsis (Miq.) Kress (Andersson 1985, 1992; Kress 1984, 1990a).

The total number of Heliconia species is still unclear, although in a recent account Ferreira de Castro et al. (2007) registered 176 for the Neotropical region and 6 in the Pacific islands, for a total of 182 species distributed in five (5) subgenera and twenty-three (23) sections. Kress and Betancur (2009) recently described one more new species from Colombia which makes a total of 183 recognized species. In Panama, 55 Heliconia species and infraspecific taxa have been reported and the country has the third largest number of endemics (17), after Colombia (36) and Ecuador (21) (Kress 2003, Correa et al. 2004, Ferreira de Castro et al. 2007, Tropicos 2016).

The new Heliconia berguidoi has been found in the premontane forests of Chucantí Private Nature Reserve, at around 800 m, in disturbed and mature forest. Seven other Heliconia species occur in the area: H. latispatha Benth., H. pogonantha Cufod., H. metallica Planch. & Linden ex Hook., H. nutans Woodson, H. wagneriana Petersen, H. platystachys Baker and H. spathocircinata Aristeg.

Chucantí Private Nature Reserve (404 hectares) is located on the border of Panama and Darién Provinces, on the eastern edge of Serranía de Majé, an isolated mountain range about 60 km long. It is 30 km south of the continental divide across the valley of the Bayano River and 15 km inland from the Pacific (Figure 1). The range rises gradually towards the east, with the highest point, Cerro Chucantí (1,439 m) at the eastern end (BirdLife International 2016). The reserve, which extends from around 800 m to the highest summit, harbors premontane and lower montane rain forests (Holdridge et al. 1971). According to the ecoregion classification system (WWF 2016), Chucantí is part of the Eastern Panamanian montane forests ecoregion. It has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) in Danger (Angehr 2003), as the extensive loss of forests due to cattle ranching activities is putting in peril the existence of several endemic bird species.

Figure 1. 

Elevation map of Panama with location of Chucantí Private Forest Reserve.

As part of a floristic inventory of the region carried out by two of the authors (Flores and Ibáñez, unpublished), ca. 250 species have been identified from more than 500 collections. At least 6 of them have been recognized as species new to science (Ortiz et al. 2016; Flores et al., submitted; Valdespino et al. in prep.), including the new Heliconia described here. Endemic species of fauna have also been recently described from the area (Batista et al. 2014, Bezark et al. 2013, Miranda and Bermúdez 2010). All of these novelties highlight the importance for conservation of this undercollected region of Panama. Discovering, describing and conserving biodiversity is the purpose of the Asociación Adopta el Bosque Panamá, owner of the Chucantí Private Nature reserve.

One live plant of H. berguidoi was collected in Chucantí Private Nature Reserve (2006) and was grown at Finca las Chichicas (Chiriquí Province). Ten years later, a specimen from the original plant was photographed, studied under cultivation, collected, illustrated and deposited at the Herbarium of the University of Panama (PMA). Some flowers and fruits were stored in 70% ethanol and studied using a stereomicroscope.

In March 2011, a specimen of H. berguidoi was collected in Chucantí Private Nature Reserve as part of a general floristic inventory of the area.

Each type specimen of subgenus Griggsia L.Andersson was reviewed in the JSTOR Global Plants webpage (JSTOR 2016). Some specimens of those species deposited in PMA Herbarium were also reviewed. Maps were made with the program ArcGIS version 10.1. The IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (IUCN 2012) was used to determine the conservation status of the new species.

The new species of Heliconia described here belongs to the section Barbatae J.Kress ined., characterized by having the inflorescence, parts of it and/or the flowers densely pubescent with colored hairs (Kress et al. 1999, Kress and Betancur 2009) and to subgenus Griggsia L.Andersson characterized by a pendent inflorescence (Kress 1990a). It is the first species of both subgenus and section found in Panama with pink flowers and very long peduncle, which occasionally makes the inflorescence touch the ground. Very few species in the genus Heliconia have pink flowers.

It resembles the Colombian species Heliconia rhodantha and Heliconia sanctae-theresae in the pink flowers. Also, H. rhodantha is similar to H. berguidoi in the length and width of the leaf and the truncate and unequal leaf base. Nevertheless, the three species differ in several ways. H. berguidoi has petioles up to 180 cm long with a woolly base vs. petioles that do not exceed 110 cm long and totally glabrous in H. rhodantha, and up to 220 cm and totally glabrous in H. sanctae-theresae. Inflorescences of H. berguidoi reach 220 cm long with a wooly peduncle and a slightly flexuous, velutinous rachis; the cincinnal bracts are spirally arranged and velutinous with apex not early necrotic vs. inflorescences up to 135 cm long, pubescent, velvety peduncle and a flexuous, finely pubescent rachis; cincinnal bracts distichous and finely pubescent with apex early necrotic in H. rhodantha, and inflorescences up to 67 cm long, velvety peduncle, flexuous rachis and cincinnal bracts distichous in H. sanctae-theresae. The perianth of H. berguidoi is pubescent at the apex and the elliptic staminode has a cuspidate apex vs. perianth glabrous and staminode completely linear in H. rhodantha, and perianth finely pubescent and staminode ovolanceolate in H. sanctae-theresae.

H. berguidoi is similar to H. pogonantha in its four varieties, mainly in the habit: leaves held more or less in horizontal position, leaves with unequal bases, blade splitting in segments, cincinnal bracts spirally arranged and the apex of the perianth pubescent. Additionally, it is similar to one of the varieties of H. pogonantha (H. pogonantha var. pubescens) in the combination of usually woolly peduncles and the rachises and cincinnal bracts velutinous.

H. berguidoi differs clearly from H. pogonantha in its four varieties by the petioles woolly towards the base, leaf with acuminate apex, long peduncle (125–150 cm), slightly flexuous rachis, pink flowers and staminode with cuspidate apex vs. petioles glabrous, leaf with acute apex, shorter peduncle (10–60 cm), flexuous rachis, yellow flowers and staminode with acuminate apex in H. pogonantha. Additionally, the inflorescence is one-colored in H. berguidoi vs. two-colored in three of the four varieties of H. pogonantha.

With the combination of similar habit, blade splitting in segments, woolly peduncle, monochromatic cincinnal bracts and pubescent sepal apexes, H. berguidoi is very close to two of the four varieties of H. ramonensis (H. ramonensis var. ramonensis and H. ramonensis var. xanthotricha) but it is clearly differentiated by the longer peduncle (125–150 cm), slightly flexuous rachis and pink flowers vs. shorter peduncle (10–60 cm), flexuous rachis and yellow flowers.

With the description of H. berguidoi, fifty-six native Heliconia species grow in Panama, eighteen of them endemic. This new species adds to a total of 178 species in the Neotropical region and 184 worldwide.

The authors wish to thank the Ministerio de Ambiente (Ministry of Environment) for facilitating this research through issuing the collecting permits (SE/P-42-09, SC/P-20-12) and to Guido Berguido, who invited us to carry out a botanical survey in Chucantí. Thanks are due also to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) for supporting logistical aspects of this work; to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) for funding two of the authors (Flores & Ibáñez) through the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) program, and to the staff of the University of Panama Herbarium (PMA). We would also like to thank Fermín Hernández, José Gudiño, Kelvin Morales, Melisa Ayala, Ángela Celis and Salvador Peris, who participated in the several field trips to the Chucantí Private Nature Reserve. Thanks to the artist Ruben Lozano for his excellent drawing of the specimen used for this article. Roy Maduro, Asociación Adopta el Bosque Panamá (ADOPTA)-Adopt a Panama Rainforest and Programa de Maestría en Biología Vegetal (UNACHI), generously provided funds for publication. We are very grateful to Gordon McPherson, Paul Maas, Gustavo Morales and W. J. Kress for their useful comments and suggestions.