Revision of Passiflora Subgenus Decaloba ... - Passion Flowers

expanded upon in a comprehensive monograph of the family that appeared a
year later in Carolus Martius’ Flora Brasiliensis (Masters, 1871, 1872). In the
12
1871 publication, he validly established four subgenera within Passiflora based
upon various floral characteristics: Astrophea, Plectostemma (with sects. Cieca,
Dysosmia, and Decaloba), Murucuia (with sects. Eumurucuia and Psilanthus),
and Granadilla. Section Cieca consisted of the apetalous members of Passiflora
that lacked bracts and possessed dish-shaped flowers; he also mistakenly
placed some petalous species in the group. In addition, many of the species that
previous authors recognized as distinct from P. suberosa were reduced to
varieties (see discussions of P. pallida and P. suberosa for details). Masters also
placed Passiflora lancifolia and Passiflora viridiflora in an unnamed section,
along with other tubular-flowered species. In the 1872 monograph, he
maintained section Cieca as described above, but he recognized not only
varieties of P. suberosa but also subvarieties. In addition, Masters placed P.
lancifolia and P. viridiflora (and the associated species from the 1871 paper) in
section Psilanthus. Masters (1871) appeared to be unaware that Reichenbach
(1828) had already elevated Decaloba to the rank of subgenus. In fact, until
MacDougal (1983), all other workers who have recognized subgenera in
Passiflora have overlooked this fact and incorrectly used Masters’ subgenus
Plectostemma (MacDougal, 1983). Triana and Planchon (1873), in their
monograph of the Colombian Passifloraceae adopted Masters’ 1872
classification with one modification. They reduced the genus Tacsonia to a
subgenus within Passiflora. In 1887 and 1891, Masters described two additional