THE GEONOMA ASPIDIIFOLIA SPECIES GROUP
Geonoma aspidiifolia was included by Wessels Boer (1968) in his group 12. Here it is excluded from that group and treated as a separate species group.
The group is characterized by its branched inflorescences; short peduncles; well developed prophylls and peduncular bracts; spirally arranged flower pits; distinct proximal and distal flower pit lips, the proximal lip briefly overlapping the distal, neither splitting; glabrous inner part of the pits; staminate flowers with six stamens; filaments with short connectives and two, elongate, inflexed, free thecae; and pistillate flowers with the staminodial tube lobed at the apex, not exserted at anthesis.
The group occurs in the central and northeastern lowland or montane areas of the Amazon region of Brazil and Guyana.
Two names have applied to the group, and two (Wessels Boer, 1968) or one (Henderson, 1995) species have been recognized.
Twenty-seven herbarium specimens from BH and NY (herbarium abbreviations from Holmgren et al., 1990) were examined.
RESULTS
Three binary variables were found. Successive rounds of CA divided these into one binary character and two binary traits (Appendix 1). Twenty-five quantitative variables were found (Appendix 1). Four are from stems, 10 from leaves, and 11 from reproductive structures. Twenty-two are continuous and three are discrete. Percentage missing values for each character are given in Appendix 1.
The single binary character was used to divide the specimens into two character groups.
Character group 1 (G. aspidiifolia). The group contains 12 specimens, and a further two (excluded because of missing qualitative data) were assigned to the group, based on morphology and geography.
Character group 2 (G. fusca). The group contains 12 specimens, and a further one was assigned to the group.
KEY TO THE SPECIES OF THE G. ASPIDIIFOLIA SPECIES GROUP
1a. Internodes green, or green proximally and reddish-brown distally.. G. aspidiifolia.
1b. Internodes reddish-brown throughout.. G. fusca.