Schmidtottia includes perhaps 17 species of xeromorphic shrubs and small tress found on serpentine substrates in eastern Cuba. This genus is characterized by regular branching with decussate leaves and a notable amount of resin on the young growth; medium-sized to small, coriaceous leaves with the venation generally not visible and the apex usually rounded; distinctive tubular, persistent, truncate stipules; terminal flowers that are solitary or several in short to lax cymes with small to well-developed, often foliaceous bracts; showy, medium-sized, 5-merous flowers; funnelform white to yellow, pink, or purple corollas with short broad lobes; stamens inserted at the base of the corolla with slender long anthers that are held together with the stigmas in the corolla throat; medium-sized, ovovoid, generally woody capsules that are septicidal and loculicidal; and numerous ellipsid, flattened seeds. The leaves are quite stiff, and seem from the specimens to be evergreen even though the habitats sometimes have seasonal preciptitation. The corollas in bud are inflated and plicate, as in several other Chiococceae genera. None of the species seems to have been frequently collected. 

Schmidtottia seems not to have been illustrated with full drawings, but only with photos of specimens. Some detail drawings and photos of pollen and seeds were presented by Aiello (1979: 25, 28, 54, 63 77, 78, 79). No field studies of Schmidtottia's biology or pollination seem to have been published. The range of corolla sizes and colors among the species suggest these are adapted for different pollinators. The stigmas were described in the genus progologue as unlobed and most specimens seen have this form. Borhidi et al. (2017) describe these as also sometimes shortly 2-lobed, which has not been seen. The NY isotype of Schmidtottia corymbosa seems in the online image to have a deeply bilobed stigma, and this may be a malformed structure and should be checked on the actual specimen.  The capsules of Schmidtottia were described as septicidal by Borhidi et al. (2017) and in the protologue, but as noted by Aiello (1979) these open both loculidically and septicidally. On some specimens the fruits separate septicidally into 2 valves with each valve shortly split at the top, but the specimens seen suggest initially the capsules open generally simultaneously in both directions.

The characters that diagnose Schmidtottia are distinctive now, but it was circumscribed different by various authors. For some time, the identity and circumscription of Portlandia were problematic, and interpreted differenty by different authors. The landmark study by Aiello (1979) detailed  flower and fruit characters for a number of poorly known plants, and clarified the identity of Schmidtottia. She included the species treated there today except for one, which she separated in Ceuthocarpus. Her new genus was separated by having an involucre of bracts around the flower and ovules and seeds all acropetal, vs. reduced scattered bracs and both acropetal and pendulous, respectively, in Schmidtottia (Aiello, 1979: 108). She also separated Ceuthocarpus based on its terminal solitary flowers, but additional Schmidtottia species have since been discovered with solitary flowers and reduced bracts. The single species of Ceuthocarpus was described in the traditional, heterogenous Portlandia, and later included in Schmidtottia (Liogier, 1962). Aiello's classification was accepted by Borhidi (2002) and Borhidi et al. (2017), who recognized both genera, until the more recent results published by Paudyal et al. (2018). Paudyal et al. found Ceuthocarpus involucrata nested within their Schmidtottia clade, and they synonymized these genera and their conclusion was accepted by Borhidi et al. (2018). Paudyal et al. found their Schmidtottia species to form a monophyletic group that was sister to a clade with several other genera endemic to Cuba and Hispaniola, and this combined clade to be sister to the Pacific genus Thiollierea.  

Schmidtottia is restricted to Cuba, where Borhidi (2002) and Borhidi et al. (2017) recognized 17 species (one of them as Ceuthocarpus) and several subspecies. Many of these species were incompletely known to these authors, in particular the corollas were unknown in many cases. A number of the species were separated by details of the leaf size and shape, calyx lobe form, and pubescence. Only one Cuban specimen was available for this current review, so the taxonomy of the Cuban plants is catalogued but not evaluated here. 

Schmidtottia is similar to Isidorea, which is sympatric; Isidorea differs in its leaves that are spinescent at the apex, narrowly triangular and sharply acute stipules. Some species of Schmidtottia are similar to Eosanthe, which differs in its 4-merous flowers with an enlarged only shallowly lobed calyx limb and indehiscent fruits with 1 seed per locule. 

Author: C.M. Taylor.
The content of this web page was last revised on 2 September 2021.
Taylor web page: http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/taylor.shtml

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• Paudyal, S.K., P. G. Delprete, S. Neupane & T. J. Motley. 2018. Molecular phylogenetic analysis ad generic delimitations in tribe Chioccceae (Cinchonoideae, Rubiaceae). Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 187: 365-396.
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