SALVIA TENORIOI Ramamoorthy ex B.L. Turner, sp. nov.Shrubs 2-3 m high. Stems mostly pubescent with white, recurved
hairs ca 0.3 mm high. Leaves (newly produced among the upper
nodes) ovate to deltoid, markedly rugose, their margins crenulate;
petioles 1-2 mm long. Flowers arranged in paniculate interrupted
spikes, the latter mostly 4-6 cm long, the terminal panicle ca 30 cm
high, 25 cm wide. Floral bracts (uppermost) lanceolate, 2-4 mm long,
glandular-pubescent, soon deciduous. Flowering calyces 6-7 mm long,
glandular-pubescent with viscid hairs ca 0.5 mm high; upper lip ca 1.5
mm long, 5-nerved; lower lip ca 1 mm long. Corollas yellow; tube
more or less straight, 7-8 mm long, papillose and/or rugose within;
upper lip ca 3 mm long; lower lip flabellate, reflexed, 3-4 mm long.
Anthers not excurrent, attached near the throat of the tube; filaments 3-
4 mm long, markedly flattened and recurved or twisting at maturity.
Style sparingly pilose, more so below, the upper branch 2-3 times as
long as the lower. Nutlets ovoid, glabrous, ca 2.5 mm long, 1.5 mm
wide.
TYPE: MEXICO. PUEBLA: Mpio. Teontepec, “14 km al NW de
Teontepec, brecha a Nopala…Matorral calcicola mixta…Suelo negro
sobre roca caliza.” 16 Nov 1985, P. Tenorio L. & G. Dieringer 10648
(holotype TEX).
According to label data the flowers are yellow, and the plants
are said to be abundant shrubs 2-3 m high. The species is named for its
collector, Pedro Tenorio, this suggested on the type itself by
Ramamoorthy soon after its collection. According to Dr. Fernando
Chiang, Pedro is a diligent collector and photographer of the Mexican
flora who formerly worked at MEXU. He assembled over 20,000
numbers from throughout Mexico, and is well known for his collections
from the area of Caltepec, Puebla where he was born and raised.
Yellow-flowered Salvias are quite rare in Mexico, as noted by
Ramamoorthy (!984). In his description of the yellow-flowered S.
tuxtlensis he stated, “Of the estimated 275 species in Mexico only three
have yellow flowers.” Actually, including S. tuxtlensis and the present
novelty, five yellow-flowered species are known, Ramamoorthy having
been unaware of the lovely S. madrensis of Sinaloa. Epling (1939)
placed the yellow-flowered species known to him (S. aspera Kunth, S.
madrensis, S. subhastata, and S. hidalgensis Mir.) in four Sections.
Ramamoorthy did not assign his novelty to a Section but allowed as to
how it might belong to yet another monotypic Section. By implication,
in my Latin diagnosis I have tentatively assigned S. tenorioi to the sect.
Scordonia, the plant concerned having the general habit and vegetative
features of that assemblage.
