Mouriri lunatanthera Morley

  • Authority

    Morley, Thomas. 1976. Melastomataceae tribe Memecyleae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 15: 1-295. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Melastomataceae

  • Scientific Name

    Mouriri lunatanthera Morley

  • Type

    Type. A. Ducke sn, MG 17050, RB 10869 (holotype, US; isotypes, BM, G, MG, P, RB; a syntype of M. brachyanthera) Brazil: Pará: Rio Tapajoz, Bella Vista. In flower, June 22, 1918.

  • Description

    Description - Tree to 20 m high, small individuals sometimes described as shrubs, the trunk to 25 cm in diam; plants glabrous except for the inflorescence; young twigs terete to narrowly 4-winged; wood very hard and strong. Petioles 0.5-3.0 mm long; blades thin-coriaceous, 4.0-13.0 cm long, 2.2-5.0 cm wide, elliptic-oblong to elliptic to ovate, acute (sometimes very broadly so) to short-acuminate at the apex, cordate at base with a small notch; midrib slightly grooved above, prominent below and rounded to 2angled; lateral nerves visible or invisible above, visible below when dry. Midrib xylem tubular; stomatal crypts Type II, averaging in a leaf ca 32-38 µ in diam, 15-20 µ high, 95-200 per sq mm (extremes 22-55 µ diam, 13-20 µ high, 70-210 per sq mm); upper epidermis mostly one cell thick, rarely two cells thick at scattered places in the leaf, the cells often with mucilaginous walls; hypodermis none; free stone cells extending 4.0-6.0 mm along the leaf midrib from the node; terminal sclereids filiform, extending from epidermis to epidermis, often with short branches at each end. Peduncles 1-2 in the leaf axils of the present or past year’s growth, each l-(-3)-flowered, 2.0-13.5 mm long to base of farthest pedicel measured along the axes and with 1 or 2 internodes in that length; bracts 1.0-2.8 mm long, triangular, acute, persistent or not at anthesis, absent in fruit Pedicels and sometimes the axes of the inflorescence minutely puberulent. True pedicels 8.0-14.0 mm long; fully developed flower buds irregularly spheroid to slightly obovoid, the calyx nearly closed, the corolla visible but only slightly protruding, the free ends of the calyx lobes 0.5-1.4 mm long, 2.4-3.3 mm wide, triangular or rounded-triangular, the lobes splitting apart at anthesis a distance of 3.6-6.0 mm, after anthesis 3.4-6.0 mm long, 4.0-5.8 mm wide, oblong to oblong-triangular, becoming truncate or obtuse at the apex; calyx including inferior ovary 8.0-11.0 mm long, broadly obconic to slightly campanulate; free hypanthium 1.0-3.0 mm long. Petals white to light rose, ca 8.0-12.0 mm long, 8.5-12.5 mm wide, broadly rhombic but with the apex truncate and minutely apiculate and the lower angles each with an inverse curve producing a basal claw. Antesepalous filaments 2.2-3.5 mm long, antepetalous ones 4.0-6.0 mm long; anthers 3.0-3.8 mm long, 2.0-2.8 mm wide; sporangia 3.0-3.8 mm long, dehiscing by apical slits; gland 0.8 mm long, 2.1-2.3 mm from apex of anther when measured from center of gland; cauda 0.8-1.3 mm long. Ovary 5-locular; placentae basal in each locule, the ovules borne on all sides of a short basal column, 5-9 per placenta, ca 28-43 in all; style 13.0-19.0 mm long. Fruit edible, yellow, depressed-globose, crowned with the persistent calyx, ca 14-15 mm high excluding calyx and 20 mm thick when dry, estimated ca 18-20 mm high and 26-28 mm thick when fresh. Seeds 6 in the fruit examined, dark brown, smooth, irregularly ellipsoid, 9.0-9.8 mm long, 5.7-8.2 mm wide (on the circumference), 5.8-7.6 mm thick (on the radius), rounded on the outer surface, flattened on the contact faces, with a large basal hilum about the shape of a cross-section of the seed, 5.5-6.4 mm in diam.

  • Discussion

    Addendum: fruit orange in a recent collection (Steward & Ramos Pl 7632).

  • Distribution

    South-central Amazonia, in an area bounded by the Manaus region, Codajás, the Porto Velho region, and Bella Vista on the Tapajos. Primary forest above flood level; caatinga forest reported once in Amazonas, islands of mixed forest in mixed country reported once in Rondonia. Soil clay or sand.

    Amazonas Brazil South America| Rondônia Brazil South America|