Vellozia aloifolia Mart.

Vellozia aloifolia Martius

SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—Y. Mexia 5870.

SURFACE VIEW.—Hairs: unicellular, fingerlike or club shaped. Present on abaxial surface only. Epidermis: adaxial cells uniformly cuboidal, abaxial cuboidal to rectangular and distinctly thick walled. Stomata: paracytic, 18 × 12 μm; observed on abaxial surface.

TRANSVERSE SECTION OF LAMINA.—Dorsiventral; shallowly corrugate, and with a distinct adaxial median groove. Adaxial surface evenly to unevenly ridged; abaxial surface conspicuously furrowed about one-third to half thickness of blade. Epidermis: two to three rows of adaxial cells square to rectangular of thin walls; abaxial cells consisting of fibrous sclerenchyma except where stomata occur. Cuticle: thick, undulating, but conspicuously ridged near adaxial and abaxial median region. Stomata: present in furrows; guard cells generally thickened; substomatal chamber inconspicuous; short strands of thick-walled fibers observed subjacent to epidermis. Mesophyll: adaxial palisade four to six layered, occupying slightly more than half of mesophyll and abruptly changing into spongy tissue; upper two to three rows of palisade and those arranged radially above vascular bundles, furrows, and above midvein distinctly translucent and large; rest of palisade cells compactly arranged and filled with chloroplast. Vascular bundles: 52 commissural bundles present. Large veins each with one to two wide vessels, mostly one. Two phloem units lying laterally in flanges of abaxial Y-shaped girder. Each vascular bundle always accompanied by adaxial cap. Vascular bundle completely surrounded by a distinct bundle sheath with short extensions of two to three cells toward abaxial epidermis. Crystals and tannin: not observed.

NOTE: The fingerlike and club-shaped hairs in the abaxial furrows of this species recall a similar feature in the Old World species of Vellozia dasylirioides and its varieties (cf. Ayensu, 1969). The thick blade (15 mm), with over 50 veins, has a shallowly corrugate shape.

Vellozia aloifolia Martius

Vellozia aloifolia Martius, Nov. Gen. & Sp., 1:15, pl. 7, 1823.— Seubert in Martius, Fl. Bras., 3(1):78, 1847.—L. B. Smith, Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb., 35:261, 1962.—Ayensu, Smithsonian Contr. Bot., 15:12, fig. 10a–c, pl. 29d–f, 1974.

TYPE.—Rocky slope, Serra de Itambé da Villa do Principe (Sêrro), 1200 m alt, Minas Gerais, Brazil, June 1818, Martius 1363 (M, holotype; US, photo).

DISTRIBUTION.—Brazil: Minas Gerais: Diamantina, Sêrro.