Piper quinchasense is described and illustrated as a new species occurring in the understory of wet montane forest of the middle Magdalena Valley in Colombia, the easternmost portion of the Chocó Region. Its relationships are discussed with related taxa from the Macrostachys clade. An identification key for 35 Neotropical Piper species with peltate leaves is provided.
We describe four new species of Piper from the Amazonian slopes of the northern Andes. Piper hoyoscardozii is distinguished from similar climbing species, P. dryadum and P. flagellicuspe, by its longer peduncles. The Amazonian species Piper indiwasii is distinguished from P. scutilimbum from Panama and northern Colombia by the narrowly spatulate leaf base extension. Piper nokaidoyitau is characterised by the presence of larger leaves and longer spikes than similar species, P. anonifolium and P. hostmannianum. Finally, P. velae is characterised by cordulate leaf bases in all nodes, petioles 0.8–1.5 cm long and pubescent fruits, which easily distinguish it from the related species, P. holdridgeanum.
In this paper we describe and illustrate Schlegelia longirachis a new species from montane forest remnants (1200--1900 m) in the Western slope of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia (“Serranía de Las Quinchas” and Virolín county) in the Departments of Boyacá and Santander. A root-climbing liana, the new species is contrasted to S. fuscata, S. monachinoi and S. parviflora, the three most morphologically similar species of Schlegelia. This new species is differentiated from its putative close relatives by vegetative (texture, colour, pubescence and shape in leaves, bracts, bracteoles pedicel, calyx and corolla), inflorescences as well as floral characters (staminode absent). We provide an updated key to 24 known species of Schlegelia. For the identification key, S. fuscata and S. roseiflora are regarded here as different from S. parviflora. S. urbaniana is considered a synonym of S. axillaris, whereas S. fastigiata is separated from S. sulphurea as a recognizable species. Schlegelia has its center of distribution in Colombia, where 17 of the species are known to occur.