Hohenbergia Schult. & Schult. f. has 65 recognized species (Luther, 2012) organized in two subgenera. The subgenus Hohenbergia includes 43 species and four varieties, mostly bearing apiculate to caudate ovules and yellow, green to lilacblue petals. Except for H. stellata Schult. & Schult. f., the subgenus Hohenbergia is endemic to Brazil, with a major center of distribution in northeastern Brazil, mainly in the state of Bahia. The subgenus Wittmackiopsis Mez has the remaining taxa, occurring in the region of the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean, and consists of species with obtuse ovules and white petals.
Despite the great diversity of Hohenbergia species concentrated in northeastern Brazil, very few contributions to the better understanding of the genus have been conducted. However, in the past three years, seven new species have been added to Hohenbergia (Leme, 2010; Leme et al., 2010; Leme & Kollmann, 2011), revealing the potential for studies on this group, as reinforced by the two new species presented here.
Hohenbergia halutheriana Leme, sp. nov
Species nova a H. itamarajuensis, cui proxima, sed laminis foliorum marginibus laxe vel subdense spinosis, spinis longioribus, bracteis floriferis minoribus, viridibus haud rugosis, floribus brevioribus, sepalis minoribus viridibusque, petalis brevioribus appendicibus conspicuis et irregulariter bidentatis differt.
Type: Brazil, Bahia, Una, road Una to Santa Luzia, ca. 100 m elev., 7 Dec. 1996, E. Leme 3736, H. E. Luther, D. Benzing & P. Nahoum, fl. cult. Jan. 2007. Holotype: RB. Isotype: CEPEC.
Plant epiphytic, flowering ca. 150 cm tall. Leaves ca. 16 in number, coriaceous, forming a broad funnelform rosette; sheaths broadly elliptic to ovate, 16-20 * 14-15 cm, densely brown lepidote on both sides, dark castaneous; blades sublinear, suberect-arcuate, not narrowed at the base, 50-70 * 10-14 cm, green, abaxially subdensely but inconspicuously white lepidote, trichomes sometimes forming inconspicuous crossbands, adaxially laxly and inconspicuously white lepidote, apex acuminate, ending in a darker pungent spine, ca. 1.5 cm long, soon stramineous and decaying, margins subdensely to laxly spinose except for the densely spinose base and apex, spines narrowly triangular to triangular, straight or slightly retrorse-uncinate, dark brown to blackish, 2-6 x 1.5-3.5 mm, 5-15 mm apart. Peduncle erect to spreading, stout, ca. 70 cm long, 1.5-2 cm in diameter, red, densely pale castaneous lanate to glabrous; peduncle bracts lanceolate, acuminate, 11-12 x 4.55 cm, stramineous, papyraceous, finely nerved, inconspicuously white lanate to glabrescent, imbricate, distinctly exceeding the internodes and almost completely covering the peduncle, the basal ones spinose at the apex, the upper ones entire. Inflorescence erect to laterally projected, laxly paniculate, broadly pyramidate, 4 times branched at the base, ca. 73 cm long, ca. 50 cm in diameter at the base; rachis stout, straight, 0.5-1.5 cm in diameter, internodes 2.5-6 cm long, sparsely lepidote, with fimbriate trichomes, to glabrous, bright red; primary bracts resembling the upper peduncle bracts but smaller, narrowly subtriangular-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, stramineous, glabrescent, suberect to subspreading with the branches, shorter than the stipes; primary branches ca. 20 in number, subspreading; the basal ones 24-30 cm long, stipes 5.5-12 cm long, ca. 1...