Art by Alice Tangerini: Dendrophthora sp.

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 4, October 2019.

This new species of mistletoe (Dendrophthora sp.; Loranthaceae) is a preliminary sketch from collections made by Larry Dorr (US) and Basil Stergios (formerly PORT) for the Flora of Guaramacal project, which focuses on the vascular plants of a national park in the Venezuelan Andes. Daniela Canelón, Curator of Herbario PORT, is especially interested in parasitic epiphytes and with the assistance of Miguel Niño, Botany Research Collaborator, and Marcos Caraballo, Peter Buck Fellow, they have determined that the material represents a new, as yet undescribed species. The collections provide a challenge to illustrate in that as they dry the plant color darkens to almost black. Rehydration in a wetting solution is required for dissecting and illustrating the tiny flowers and fruits. Caraballo has been generous in lending Tangerini his books and papers on the genus so that typical views by other illustrators can be studied to show how this particular collection differs from similar species.