Check List 22(2): 316-327, doi: 10.15560/22.2.316
135 years in the shadows: rediscovery of Lophophytum weddellii Hook. f. (Santalales, Balanophoraceae) in Colombia
Santiago Guzmán-Guzmán‡§, Julio Andrés Sierra-Giraldo‡|, Jairo Andrés Orozco-A|‡‡ Herbario FAUC, Universidad de Caldas, Grupo de investigación Biodiversidad y Recursos Fitogenéticos, Manizales, Colombia§ Semillero de Investigación en Plantas y Afines (PHYTOS), Grupo de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Recursos Naturales (BIONAT), Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia| Fundación Conservación de la Selva Colombiana, Manizales, Colombia
Corresponding author: Santiago Guzmán-Guzmán ( santiago.guzmang7.97@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Ana Carolina Devides Castello © Santiago Guzmán-Guzmán, Julio Andrés Sierra-Giraldo, Jairo Andrés Orozco-A. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Guzmán-Guzmán S, Sierra-Giraldo JA, Orozco-A JA (2026) 135 years in the shadows: rediscovery of Lophophytum weddellii Hook. f. (Santalales, Balanophoraceae) in Colombia. Check List 22(2): 316-327. https://doi.org/10.15560/22.2.316 |  |
Abstract
The rediscovery of Lophophytum weddellii Hook. f. (Balanophoraceae) in Colombia is documented 135 years after its last record. Three individuals were found in Segovia, Antioquia, parasitizing Inga umbellifera (Vahl) Steud. (Fabaceae), representing the first confirmed host and photographic record for the country. Morphological data, pollen description, and floral visitors are reported. Historical notes on William Purdie’s 1845 collections and the biogeographic context of the Nechí Refuge highlight the relevance of this finding for understanding the disjunct distribution of the species between the Magdalena Valley and the Amazon Basin.
Keywords
Belidae, ecoregion, holoparasite, Magdalena Valley, Neotropics