Arachis inflata: A New B Genome species of Arachis (Fabaceae)

Abstract

Great efforts have been done to collect germplasm of the Arachis genus in South America, however, many regions still remain underexplored. Under the hypothesis that these regions have new and diverse populations/species of Arachis, several expeditions were carried out since 2000 in Bolivia, to increase the documentation of the genus diversity. As a first result of these explorations, a new species of section Arachis with B genome is formally described. Arachis inflata is closely related to A. magna and A. ipaënsis, but it can be clearly distinguished from them, and from any other species of the genus, for having a type of fruit with a completely distinct morphology. The fruit has a smooth epicarp, but shows a bullated aspect, due to the presence of air chambers in the mesocarp.