Main | Family List (MO) | Family List (INBio) | Cutting Edge Draft Treatments | Guidelines | Checklist | Citing | Editors The Cutting Edge Volume XXIX, Number 2, April 2022 News and Notes | Leaps and Bounds | Germane Literature | Season's Pick | Global Range Extensions ACANTHACEAE. Pachystachys spicata (Ruiz & Pav.) Wassh. is a highly ornamental sp., with large, red flowers (recalling those of some Aphelandra spp.) emerging from relatively large, green bracts. It is known to be native in the Antilles and Andean South America but, we glean, is also widely trafficked in the horticultural realm, where it has likely been confused with its look-alike, P. coccinea (Aubl.) Nees (native to the Guayanas and Brazil). Our friend Esteban Jiménez found P. spicata (J. E. Jiménez 5421, USJ) growing in disturbed forest at ca. 50 m elevation in the Baja Talamanca region (Fila Carbón), presumably as an escapee, but not inconceivably native. Had we known of this population in time, we’d have been obliged to treat the sp. in full in the Manual; under Pachystachys cordata (Nees) A. L. A. Côrtes, it is now mentioned in the online version as a recent addition to the flora. FABACEAE. Manual co-PI Barry Hammel has discovered yet another population of the introduced Asian shrub Flemingia strobilifera (L.) R. Br., along the highway between Cóbano and Paquera, “looking as though it has been there forever.” In the Manual distribution statement for said sp., simply insert “S Pen. de Nicoya” immediately before “Valle Central.” HYPOXIDACEAE. Molineria capitulata (Lour.) Herb. was merely mentioned in the Manual family discussion of Hypoxidaceae as cultivated for ornament (mainly because of its large, plicate leaves) in the Valle Central. However, Manual co-PI Barry Hammel recently stumbled onto a thoroughly naturalized population near his weekend digs at Cabuya, near the southern tip of the Península de Nicoya (Hammel & Pérez 27901, CR). These plants were found growing in a gully, next to an intermittent stream, quite distant from the nearest human habitation, at ca. 60 m elevation. This is another case of a sp. that we’d have been duty-bound to treat fully, had we been aware of this occurrence. Incidentally: according to the most recent molecular evidence [see, e.g., under “Kocyan,” this column, in The Cutting Edge 18(3), Jul. 2011], this sp. should now be called Curculigo capitulata (Lour.) Kuntze (a name that was cited as a synonym in the Manual). ORCHIDACEAE. Oeceoclades maculata (Lindl.) Lindl. notwithstanding, the notion of aggressively adventive orchid spp. still seems odd to us. But now we may have another one on our hands! While vacationing in Costa Rica in 2016, former director of Plantlife International Bill Syratt found an unusual sp. growing on the old lava slopes of Volcán Arenal, looking much as though it were part of the native vegetation. Not! Possessed (unlike your editors!) of an impressive familiarity with cultivated orchids (or at least of this stray, far from its native habitat), Bill was able to identify these plants as Spathoglottis plicata Blume, an Asian sp. commonly known as the Philippine ground orchid. Based on the color photo he sent us, we can find no basis for argument. Internet sleuthing reveals that this sp. has been photographed by other parties at or near the same site, so it seems to be established there, whether deliberately or not. Further investigation has revealed that the same sp. has long been known as naturalized in central Panama, and (at least, according to Mabberley’s plant-book) has become quite a problem in Puerto Rico (which had also fallen victim to Oeceoclades). Our previous experience with new adventives suggests that, once they are first discovered, they quickly begin showing up everywhere. We will be keeping our eyes peeled (if only to secure a voucher!). Hammel suspects that he has since been seeing the blasted thing in front yards all over the place, from Cabuya (at the southern tip of the Península de Nicoya) to Tures de Santo Domingo de Heredia (in the Valle Central), but of course we will only settle for a specimen from the slopes of Arenal!   TOP