THE OFFICIAL PRESENTATION TO SCIENCE OF A NEw SPECIES OF HEcHTiA (BROMELIACEAE: HECHTIOIDEAE) FROM THE PACIFIC LOwLANDS IN MExICO

Background: Hechtia is characterized by its terrestrial, succulent rosettes, dioecy, and unisexual, dimorphic flowers, mainly fragrant. The paucity and fragmentary herbarium material limit the species recognition but living material reveals diagnostic characters to delimitate them. Hypothesis: Hechtia species are circumscribed by a combination of vegetative and floral characters of both sexes. If the new taxon does not share morphological characters with other species, it will be described as new. Taxon: Hechtia. Study site and dates: Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, Jalisco, 1985-2023. Methods: Field collected, cultivated as well as herbarium material of the new taxon were analyzed and compared to other species from the Pacific Lowlands and adjacent areas, particularly flowers of both sexes, fruits, and seeds. Conservation status using IUCN criteria is reported for the new species. Results: Specimens of Hechtia chamelensis have been misidentified as H. laevis and H. reticulata (both described from fruiting, fragmentary specimens) but the fruit and seed features of both taxa do not match those of the new species. H. chamelensis is known from the ChamelaCuixmala Biosphere Reserve and it is characterized by strict sympodial growth pattern, green leaves with red hues, shiny and glabrous above, white lepidote below, panicles usually simple to (rarely staminate ones) 2-divided, staminate flowers pinkish to pale white, pistillate with pale green to white petals. Conclusions: Vegetative and reproductive features as well as geographical distribution allow the recognition of H. chamelensis as a new species native from Jalisco, Mexico.