Loreya umbellata (Gleason) Wurdack
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Authority
Renner, Susanne S. 1989. Systematic studies in the Melastomataceae Bellucia, Loreya and Macairea. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 50: 1-112.
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Family
Melastomataceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Tree (5-)8-13(-20) m high. Branchlets subangular, with a velvety brown hair-covering; bark dark brown, smooth. Leaves 25-30(-40) x 17-15(-25) cm, ovate, elliptic, or obovate, shortly acuminate, obtuse to rounded at base, membranaceous, adult leaves on the surface above glabrous, below with short glandular hairs, strigulose on the veins, 5-pli-nerved with the inner pair of lateral primaries diverging 5-6 cm above the blade base; petioles (2-)3(-5) cm long. Cymes many-flowered with 20-30 flowers, umbellate, 3.0-4.5 cm long, the peduncle ca. 3 cm long. Flowers with pedicels 8-10 mm long; hypanthium 4-5 mm long, deciduously pubemlous; petals white to pink, 6-8(-9) mm long, 4 mm wide at the base, broadly triangular, apex subacute, filaments 5.0-5.5 mm long; anthers 5.0-5.5 mm long, 2-pored; style 14-16 mm long; stigma 1.8-2.0 mm diam.; ovary 5-locular. Fruit a puberulous, glabrescent, immature red, mature blue or black berry, ca. 0.8-1 cm diam. Seeds wedge-shaped with an elongate lateral hilum, bulging testa cells forming an irregular pattem.
Distribution and Ecology - Distribution and ecology (Fig. 17): Loreya umbellata is a riparian species, widespread in Ecuador and occurring in the Amazonian parts of Colombia, Peru, and westem Brazil.
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Discussion
Bellucia umbellata Gleason, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 58: 257. 1931a. Type: Peru. Loreto: Mishuyacu, nr. Iquitos, Klug 131 (holotype: NY!; isotypes: BM!, F!)
Local names: rifarillo (Peru); this name is also used for Loreya klugii. Loreya umbellata and Loreya gracilis, the following species, are readily distinguished from all other species by the short, yellow, glandular hairs on the lower leaf surface and by the umbel-like inflorescences on long peduncles. Though not found elsewhere in Loreya, this type of short glandular hairs is widespread in the Miconieae (Wurdack, 1986). In the Flora of Peru (Macbride, 1941), the key gives L. umbellata as having anthers one-pored and L. spruceana as two-pored (the reverse of the actual case). Loreya umbellata is illustrated in Dodson and Gentry (1978).