Cryptocarya costaricana (Lauraceae), a new species from Mesoamerica

Summary Cryptocarya R.Br. is a genus of the Lauraceae family with about 360 accepted species, distributed in Central and South America, East and South Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. In the Americas there are 11 species endemic to Brazil, along with five other currently described species. Flowering material recently collected in Costa Rica revealed a new species which is described here as Cryptocarya costaricana P.L.R.Moraes & N.Zamora. The new species is, so far, only known from four localities in the Guanacaste Cordillera, between 459 – 1000 (– 1500) m of elevation. We provide a complete description of the new species, including illustrations, a distribution map and a comparative table of, and key to, its putative closest, morphological relatives in the Neotropics.