Studies in the Capparidaceae XVIII. a new giant-fruited Capparis (C. muco) from eastern Venezuela

Capparis (subg. Calyptrocalyx) muco, an arborescent species from dry tropical semide- ciduous and deciduous forests northeast and south of Barcelona, Anzodtegui, in northern Venezuela and several islands in Lago de Guri, Bolfvar, in eastern Venezuela, is newly described and differ- entiated by a dense, soft, thin and slender, loosely stellate-echinate leaf pubescence (consisting of simply constructed, sessile, 2-rayed, stellate hairs (1.0-1.4 mm diam.) grading to echinate and com- plex multirayed, multiangulate "candelabra" or "palmoid" hairs on multiseriate stalks) from the re- lated but tightly stellate-echinate C. leprieurii-C. maroniensis complex of the Guianas, in which the hairs are minute (0.2-0.3 mm diam.) and distantly dispersed. The large, more or less spherical fruits of "Muco" contain pulp that is eaten by both mon- keys and people. Illustrations and a distribution map are provided.