Piper svenningii – a new species from Ecuador, Colombia, and Perú

Recent revision of the Piper collections at Aarhus Univ. Herbarium (AAU), collected in Ecuador, revealed specimens of undescribed species and species that were mentioned as endemic in the catalog of plants of Colombia Piper dolichostylum, P. littlei, P. morelianum, P. sanandresense and P. tarquiense resulting of incomplete curation of herbarium collections in institutions that launched expeditions to the Amazon and the Andes. Piper svenningii (Piperaceae) from the eastern slopes of the Andes and adjacent lowlands in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, is described as a new species and illustrated, and a morphological comparison with similar species is made. Piper svenningii differs from P. costatum and P. japurense by its leaves which have induplicate margins, versus leaf margins flat and not induplicate. It differs from Piper rurrenbaqueanum by having leaves that are pinnately nerved throughout with 10–12 pairs of secondary nerves, versus 4–6 pairs of secondary nerves that are pinnately arranged in the basal two thirds of the lamina.