Anthurium decipiens, a gigantic new and apparently sapromyophilous species from western Colombia, with notes on the related and often confused Anthurium salgarense.

 

Alistair Hay & Marco Cedeño-Fonseca

 

ABSTRACT

Anthurium decipiens A. Hay & M. Cedeño (Sect. Belolonchium) is described and illustrated from the Tatama massif on the western cordillera of the Colombian Andes. Features distinguishing the new species from the evidently related A. salgarense Croat, with which it has been confused especially by horticultural collectors, but also in herbaria and botanic gardens, are summarised. Anthurium decipiens is observed to have a foul-smelling spadix attracting Sarcophaga flies which are usually associated with dung or carrion - a first record for Anthurium and indeed for the entire Pothoideae/Monsteroideae clade, though sapromyophily is a recurrent phenomenon in numerous other Araceae clades. However, the inflorescences of plants from a second population, in Choco, are ostensibly scentless and, in cultivation, attract large euglossine bees of the genus Eulema. The striking resemblance of the suspended black and orange/scarlet berries of the new species to hanging arillate seeds is noted.

 

KEYWORDS

Araceae-Pothoideae, Anthurium decipiens, Anthurium salgarense, sapromyophily, arilmimicry, Colombia, Risaralda, Choco