457. MUTISIA SUBSPINOSA Compositae Nicholas Hind and Tony Hall Summary. Mutisia subspinosa Cav. is described and illustrated and its relationships with other members of Mutisia sect. Guariruma (Cass.) Cabrera discussed. Notes on its cultivation are provided along with a historical insight into the collections of N
ee, made on the Malaspina expedition. In common with one other plate in this volume the subject of this plate is a member of the showy-headed genus Mutisia L.f. Mutisia subspinosa Cav. also belongs to the same section of the genus as M. decurrens Cav. M. retrorsa Cav. and M. sinuata Cav., section Guariruma (Cass.) Cabrera. Mutisia sect. Guariruma is a section of some seventeen species and, with the exception of one species from the south of Brazil, the majority of species are from the Andes  from Ecuador south to Chile and Argentina. Species are relatively easily identifiable as climbers or scandent plants which have simple narrowly-lanceolate or oblanceolate leaves, usually with variously dentate margins, generally with simple tendrils, and conspicuous (and very showy) heterogamous radiate heads (with bilabiate ray and disc florets). It is interesting to note that Cavanilles, who described so many mutisias, actually described five from collections made by N
ee from the Cordillera del Planch
on in the Province of Mendoza, Argentina; I believe Cavanilles citation of a collection from Peru (apparently collected by N
ee) was in error  the species has never been collected in that country. A short diversion commenting on N
ee is worthwhile at this point. Luis N
ee (c. 1734  1807) was a French (later a naturalized Spaniard) botanist who collected on the Captit
an don Alejandro Malaspina expedition in the corvettes La Descubierta (the Discovery) and La Atrevida (the Daring or Bold) between 1789 and 1794; the expedition was a political-scientific expedition intended to visit all of the Spanish possessions in the Americas and Asia. It was Antonio Pineda y Ram
rez (1753 1792), an army officer and naturalist, who proposed that N
ee participated in the expedition. Pineda had been given the job of co-ordinating the naturalists work on the expedition, although botany was by no 12 # Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2003. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA Plate 457 Mutisia subspinosa LINDA GURR means the principal interest. N
ee embarked on the Atrevida, commanded by Jos
e de Bustamante y Guerra 1759 1825, who eventually became Captain-General of Guatemala, and collected widely in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Ecuador, successfully crossing the Andean Cordillera and the pampa before rejoining the expedition in Buenos Aires. His collections amounted to some 10 000 plants and, according to Cavanilles (1799) a significant portion of these were Compositae followed by grasses and members of the Labiatae; the largest set was eventually deposited in Madrid (MA) once N
ee had worked on it, although there were a few duplicate sets. He tried repeatedly to publish his researches but was largely unsuccessful; the vast majority of the new and interesting taxa were published in a series of papers and books by Cavanilles. Comments made by Garmendia (1989) suggest that N
ee repeatedly held that hed collected 12 000 plants and that there had obviously been some friction about this. The set of collections in Prague is testament to this problem as none of the collections attribute Haenke, one of the most able of naturalists who was also on the expedition, as the collector. The original labels having apparently been lost and=or substituted by suspicious labels indicating N
ee dedite, N
ee iter, legado de N., or del viaje de N. (q.v. Garmendia 1989: 50). I have indicated suspicious since, as Garmendia remarked, Haenke donated some 15 000 plants to the national collection in Prague which were described by Presl in Reliquiae Haenkeanae in 1825  as plants collected by Haenke. CULTIVATION. Mutisia subspinosa has bright-orange flowers, reminiscent of its close relative M. decurrens albeit smaller, and with fewer ray florets, but there the similarity ends. This species is a quite vigorous liane reaching 2 to 3 m in height and branching freely at the base. Kews living material is from a 1995 collection by Robert Rolfe s.n. from Argentina, in Mendoza Province, at 2000 m alt. among scrub on gravels. M. subspinosa is a plant more suited to life in a large conservatory or cold house than an average low-gabled alpine house, and will need support from wires, trellis or tall pea-sticks; a word of warning: the latter are not easy to remove or replace once brittle and past their useful life. Luckily, the Alpine House at Kew, opened in 1981, is a spacious, high-sided glass pyramid, in shape evocative of a mountain, large enough to house that classic # Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2003. 13 example of gigantism, Puya raimondii Harms, at least until it flowers! and a rarely cultivated, large Chilean shrub, Colletia ulicina Gillies & Hook.; a fine form of this, with coral-red flowers in profusion from summer to early winter has, since it was first planted in the house in 1980, also proven to be perfectly hardy outside. The gorse-like Colletia forms a living framework for the climbing stems of M. subspinosa, and shades its root-run; more importantly, it is a means of absorbing excess moisture from this part of the landscaped house, so that its companion-liane never suffers from cold, wet feet. Clearly, this climber is very much at home here, for it is the only mutisia that seeds around in the house, although it is never a nuisance. It also responds positively to heavy pruning (as does Colletia ulicina: both were getting out of hand and had to be cut down to within 30 centimetres of ground level, in the spring of 1992, and have since romped away). Some lianes and most notably M. ilicifolia Cav. and M. spinosa Ruiz & Pav. would baulk at such drastic treatment. Coming from montane regions, this mutisia should prove fairly hardy, but its preference for scrub on sandy, gravelly soils and unstable screes would indicate a need for perfect drainage and cold dry winters. This may account for its repeated failure on the Rock Garden at Kew where at least three separate plantings have died following a wet season. To succeed outside it would require training against a sheltered warm wall, with light shade at its roots in summer. It could also be grown in a large container, with appropriate support, in a conservatory. Propagation is easy, either from seed or from cuttings, and the method is the same as for other mountain species. The description below is taken from the live material in the Alpine House. Mutisia subspinosa Cav., Icones Descr. Plant. 5: 64 & tab. 495 (1799); Lessing, Linnaea 5: 270 (1830); Hookers Bot. Misc. 1: 10 (1832); De Candolle, Prodr. 7: 6 (1838); Weddell, Chloris Andina 1: 15 (1855); Cabrera, Opera Lilloana 13: 176 & fig. 69 (1965). Types: Habitat prope Gauamantanga oppidum peruvianum, florens Iulio; et in Cordillera del Planch
on Februario. Vidi siccam apud D. Lud. NÑee. (syntypes MA). Lectotype probably chosen by Cabrera (1965: 178) although the MA specimen actually cites both localities given in the protologue, q.v. Guamauranga in Peru. Plancho. Nee [¼ N ee ee]  dedit! Guarirama subspinosum (Cav.) Cass., Dict. Sci. Nat. 33: 472 (1824). 14 # Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2003. M G J K L F H E C N A B D Mutisia subspinosa. A, l.s. capitulum; B, receptacle surface showing fimbriate shallowly alveolate surface; C, outer phyllary; D, inner phyllary; E, ray floret; F, ray floret corolla tube opened out showing attachment of anther filaments in corolla tube; G, staminodes or rudimentary anthers of ray floret; H, style arms of ray floret; J, disc floret; K, disc floret corolla opened out showing attachment of anther filaments in corolla tube and nectary at base of style; L, disc floret anther cylinder, opened out; M, style arms of disc florets; N, mature achene with plumose pappus. Scale bars A, C F, J, K, N ¼ 1 cm; B, G, H, L, M ¼ 1 mm. Drawn by Linda Gurr. # Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2003. 15 DESCRIPTION. Climbing subshrub with stems to c. 1.5 2 m. Stems poorly branched, essentially glabrous, somewhat undulating, yellowish green, 3winged, wings mid-green, dentate-spiny, although sometimes sparsely so, 2 5 mm wide, axillary buds conspicuously white-tomentose. Leaves alternate, sessile, leaf base hastate, lamina 80 100 ( 120) mm long
6  13 mm wide, discolourous, mid- to light green above and light green beneath, midrib markedly prominent above and beneath, yellowish green, secondary venation inconspicuous, margins with 10  14 pairs of mucronate teeth, apices long-attenuate and terminating in a simple unbranched tendril. Inflorescence of solitary terminal capitula, capitula short-pendunculate, peduncle 5 15 ( 23) mm; capitula radiate, heterogamous; involucre cylindrical to very narrowly campanulate, 20  25 mm long
10  12 mm diameter; phyllaries 6-seriate, often suffused dark pink towards apices, outer phyllaries broadly ovate to semicircular, 2 5 mm long
10 mm wide, with reflexed terminal appendage to c. 12 mm long, inner phyllaries oblong, 20 mm long
c. 9 mm wide, apices obtuse with reflexed terminal linearlanceolate appendage 2 5 mm long, conspicuously white-tomentose inside at base of appendage; receptacle flat, epaleaceous, scarcely alveolate, divisions extremely short and often scarcely visible; fruiting clock to 80 mm diam., with completely reflexed phyllaries. Ray florets 8 10, female, bilabiate, outer lip an enlarged limb, limb narrowly lanceolate, 23 37 mm long
6  7 mm wide, orpiment orange (RHS colour chart 10, RHS 1938), apices short 3-toothed, inner lip of two short, often coiled, linear lobes, corolla tube c. 23 mm long, glabrous, somewhat thickened; staminodes connate or free attached a short distance beneath throat, partially exserted; style base lacking basal node, glabrous, style shaft glabrous, reddish purple, style arms long scarcely divided at apices, apices rounded, inner surfaces slightly yellowish. Disc florets 20, hermaphrodite, bilabiate, corolla orangeyellow to yellow, bilabiate, outer lip c. 8 mm long, 3-toothed, inner lip of two recurved lobes, corolla tube c. 17 mm, glabrous, somewhat thickened, anther cylinder largely exserted, yellowish orange, apical anther appendages acute, about three times longer than wide, basal anther appendages long-caudate, simple to sparingly laciniate, anther collar not evident, filament attachment about 23 way down corolla tube; pollen orange; style base lacking basal node but with prominent c. 4 mm long apically lobed nectary, glabrous, style shaft glabrous, style arms scarcely divided. Achenes 15 17 mm long, dark brown, glabrous, rostrate, narrowed to just beneath apical callus and then expanding to callus; carpopodium non-existent; pappus setae uniseriate, flattened and somewhat broadened at base, 20 25 mm long, plumose, side branches 2.5 3.5 mm long, off-white to fawn (although Cabrera indicated pinkish white!). DISTRIBUTION. Restricted to an arc in the mountains of the provinces of La Rioja, San Juan and Mendoza in Argentina and very rare in the provinces of Atacama and ˆNuble in Chile. HABITAT. Climbing amongst scrub at 1500 2500 m. Often found on granitic soils, and generally in scrub on gravelly slopes. 16 # Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2003. FLOWERING TIME. November March in the wild; July  September in the glasshouse cultiation at Kew. USES. It is apparently used in local medicines (Cabrera 1965). VERNACULAR NAME. GRANADILLA. REFERENCES Cabrera, A.L. (1965). Revision del genero Mutisia (Compositae). Opera Lilloana 13: 1 227. Cavanilles, A.-J. (1799). Icones et descriptions plantarum quae aut sponte in Hispania crescunt aut in hortis hospitantur. Impremta Reial, Madrid. Vol 5. Garmendia, F.M. (1989). Algo m
as sobre N
ee y sus aportaciones a la bot
anica. In B. S
anchez (co-ord.), La BotÑanica en la expediciÑon Malaspina, 1789  1794. Turner, Madrid. # Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2003. 17