C.ceratocalyxIllustration copyright Bobbi Angell 2010, used with permission of artist and Dr. Michael Nee
Capsicum ceratocalyx was described late 2006 as a species of the genus capsicum. The species was previously found only in Bolivia Departamento La Paz.
Notes of this new species are based primarily on 15 years of botanizing in Bolivia by Nee, by a field trip by Nee and Bohs in 1998, and one by Michael Nee, Lynn Bohs, and Sandra Knapp in May of 2001.
Capsicum ceratocalyx is a 1.5 m tall shrub,the young stems are hairy with forward directed curved hairs (Trichomus). The older stems are practically hairless.The stem structure is sympodial what actually means that the stem is made up of a series of axillary branches growing one from another, and often has a zigzag or irregular form. Two leaves occurring in two distinct forms are formed in the nodes.
The larger leaves are 2 - 22,5 X 0.6 - 6.5 cm tall, the smaller leaves are similar to the larger ones but are only 1/3 of it's size. The smaller leaves are elliptical and inversely lanceolate and are practically hairless but some 0.2 to 0.3 mm short hairs can mainly be found on the leaf edges.
The leaf shape is acute and often uneven, the leaf tip is very long with slightly curled upwards edges. The stems on the largest leaves can reach a length of up to 3 cm but. on flowering parts of the plants they are usually shorter than 8 mm.
The inflorescences are in the axils of the leaves of the larger type, and consist of groups of 6 to 9 flowers, but usually only 1 to 4 will form fruits. The flowers are on pedicels that are about 9 mm in length during the flowering period, but extends during the formation of the fruit from 19 to 23 mm. The base diameter of the pedicels are about 1 mm which increases up to 2.2mm at the opposite end.
The ribbed and winged cross-sections of the pedicels are very remarkable
The calyx is bell-shaped, 5 to 5.5 mm long, wavy edge is broken up. Striking are the five inflected, 2 to 2.5 cm long, laterally compressed attachments of the calyx, which look almost like a horn. The corolla has a diameter of about 0.5 cm, is about 6 mm long, more or less campanulate to almost circular.
Capsicum ceratocalyx M. Nee. (A) Leafy branch. (B) Pedicel scars in leaf axils. (C)Young bud. (D) Partially
open bud. (E) Anthers, drawn from bud. (F) Fruiting calyx. (Based on Nee et al. 51778, NY.)
The five highly lobed petals are yellow with darker green spots inside. The corolla tube is about 3 mm long, triangular. The stamens are located inside the crown, which are deeply attached to the corolla tube filaments about 1 mm long, it lacks the two tissue like flaps. The anthers are about 1.8 × 1.5 mm in size, egg-shaped and open along the longitudinal axis (longitudinal).
The fruits are 1 inch tall, red, juicy, hairless berries, which stand upright on the pedicel
From this species only a few collections are known from the cloud forests in the Bolivian provinces of Nord Yungas and South Yungas in Departamento La Paz. The sites are located in a height of 1700 to 2300 meters
