Vochysia tepuiandina (Vochysiaceae), a new species from the sub Andean Cordillera forests

Vochysia tepuiandina is here described and illustrated. It occurs in southern Ecuador and northern Peru, and is associated with the disjunct “Andean Tepuis” forests found within the Andean piedmont and of the Amazonian forests. This species is placed in the Vochysia section Ciliantha subsection Ferrugineae. It is compared with the similar species V. angustifolia and V. sprucei.


INTRODUCTION
The arboreal genus Vochysia Aubl. (Vochysiaceae) is widely distributed in Neotropical forests from Mexico to Paraguay, with more than 145 species, of which more than 60% is found in Amazon forests (Marcano-Berti 2013;Huamantupa-Chuquimaco 2017). Within Vochysia 4 sections are recognized: Apopetala, Ciliantha, Pachyantha and Vochysiella (Stafleu 1948;Marcano-Berti 2013), within the Ciliantha section, the Ferrugineae sub section is one of the most diverse with 29 species (Huamantupa-Chuquimaco 2017). The Amazon forests located at the Andean piedmont are recognized worldwide as diversity hotspots. They occur in several countries including Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru (Myers et al. 2000). These areas integrate as well with sub-Andean mountain ranges where disjoint formations known as Andean Tepuis are found. These forests are associated mainly with white-sand soils, which has been hypothesized to be related to the Tepuis of the Guyana Shield (Neill et al. 2007). They are distributed mainly in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The ones located in Ecuador are part of the Cordillera del Kutuku whereas in Peru they distribute along the cordilleras del Cóndor, Escalera, Kampankis and Azul (Neill et al. 2012(Neill et al. , 2014. These areas have been described as biologically rich and with high endemism (Neill et al. 2014;Huamantupa-Chuquimaco and Neill 2018). Is in this region where the new species Vochysia described in this document occurs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The specimens examined were collected as a product of different collaborative projects. These projects include botanical and ecological collections on the Andean and Amazon forests in Ecuador and Peru, such as the permanent plots monitored by RAINFOR, the Missouri Botanical Garden-Perú (MBG) and others. The fertile specimens were analyzed in the HOXA, MO, NY and USM herbaria (acronyms according to Thiers 2019).

Etymology
The epithet "tepuiandina" is named after the habitat in the "Andean Tepuis" from the sub Andean cordilleras preferred by this species. These habitats have quarzitic stone formations similar to the Tepuis of the Guiana Shield, distributed along mountain ranges between the north-central of Peru to southern Ecuador.

Distribution and ecology
Vochysia tepuiandina is known from the "Andean Tepuis" group of disjunct mountains associated to sandy outcrops related to Guiana Shield Tepuis ranging from Venezuela and Guyana, in Ecuador and Peru, This mountain region is distributed and interconnected from the southern of Ecuador to northern Peru, belonging to what is known as Cordillera del Condor, then continues to Cordillera Azul and Cerro Escalera in Loreto and San Martin region in the northern Peru. The altitudes range between 1240 and 1840 m above sea level.

Phenology
Flowering specimens were collected between October and December.

Conservation status
Vochysia tepuiandina is only known from the Cordillera del Cóndor, Cordillera Azul and Cordillera Escalera and in the surroundings of these areas, a region that is part of southern Ecuador and continuing to northern Peru. Based on the IUCN (2017) criteria and it geographic distribution, which was calculated using the Geocat Software (2017), the extent of occurrence (EOO) of V. tepuiandina is 7,966 km² and its area of occupancy is 16 km², therefore this species, according to IUCN (2017) standards is classified as Endangered (EN).

Remarks
Vochysia tepuiandina belongs to Vochysia sect. Ciliantha subsect. ferrugineae. All the species of this group are characterized principally by brown stems and bark, sometimes exfoliating, stipules always present, leaves in whorls or opposite, young branches and leaves ferruginous-pilose on the abaxial face, inflorescences terminal and sometimes axillary, flowers with 3 petals, rarely one, petals and stamen pilose-ciliate along the margins and base, style and glabrous ovary (Stafleu 1948). Therefore, Vochysia tepuiandina can be differentiated from V. angustifolia Ducke (1932). The latter species is a medium-sized tree, to 15 m tall, with lanceolate stipules, leaf blades with more of 30 secondary veins on each side of midrib, clearly glabrous on the abaxial surface, cincinni with 2-3 flowes, and sepal and petals are glabrous; and is commonly restricted to seasonally inundated forests, river banks in the Rio Negro and Amazonas basin. On the other hand, Vochysia tepuiandina is markedly a large tree up to 30 m tall, with leaf blades with less than 15 secondary veins on each side of midrib, cincinni with 1-2 flowers, and sepals and petals densely tomentose. It is more commonly distributed in montane forests associated to poor sandy soils. Another similar specie is Vochysia sprucei Warming (1875), which is described from the Cerro Pelado mountains in Tarapoto province, relatively close to Cerro Escalera, Peru; it dif-fers from T. tepuiandina by the leaves that are sparsely stiff-ferruginous and with brown-orange puberulence on the abaxial surface, with more of 16 secondary veins on each side of midrib, obtuse at apex, sepals and petals glabrous, and presence of staminodes. A comparison of morphological characters of these three species is presented in Table 1.