Is Alstroemeria pulchra Sims var. maxima Phil. (Alstroemeriaceae) a member of the A. magnifica Herbert complex?: A colorimetric study of outer and inner flower tepals*

Abstract

Alstroemeria pulchra var. maxima is an endemic Chilean taxon described by R.A. Philippi in 1864, whose taxonomic position is
controversial; even though Bayer in 1987 transferred this taxon to A. magnifica with the rank of subspecies, Muñoz & Moreira in
2003 return to the original concept proposed by Philippi. In order to provide a new character to decide if A. pulchra var. maxima is a
member of the A. magnifica complex or must remain as a variety of A. pulchra as was originally described, the color of outer, upper
inner and lower inner tepals of the flowers of eight populations of Alstroemeria L. belonging to these two endemic Chilean species
were analyzed with a spectrophotometer colorimeter Hunterlab Colorquest: five populations of A. magnifica Herbert and three
populations of A. pulchra Sims. CIELab coordinates allow to separate A. magnifica from A. pulchra on the basis of the color of the
outer and lower inner tepals but not by the color of the upper inner tepals. We conclude that the color of the flower is a new character
to confirm that var. maxima belong to A. pulchra, not to the A. magnifica complex.