Plinia involucrata (O.Berg) McVaugh

  • Authority

    Maguire, Bassett. 1969. The botany of the Guayana Highland-part VIII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 18: 1-290.

  • Family

    Myrtaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Plinia involucrata (O.Berg) McVaugh

  • Description

    Distribution and Ecology - BRAZIL. Amazonas: "In ripa saepe inundata fluminis Teffe, ad urbem Ega"(imm buds), Poeppig 2882 (W, type; G, M I C H , P). VENEZUELA. Amazonas:Puerto Ayacucho, elev 88 m, 24 ] May 1940 (nearly mature fr), Williams 13103 (F).

  • Discussion

    Myrciaria involucrata Berg, Mart. Fl. Bras. 14(l): 375. 1857

    For description of vegetative features see Field Mus. Publ. Bot. 13(4) [Fl. Peru]: 779. 1958. In the Flora of Peru I treated this plant of the upper Amazon and Orinoco lowlands as a synonym of Plinia pinnata, but having seen fruiting specimens of both, and a few more specimens than were available to m e a decade ago, I do not now suppose the two to be conspecific. I have not seen any flowering specimens of Myrciaria involucrata, but its leaves, bracts and bracteoles, and fruits are those of a species of Plinia. The following description is supplementary:

    Bracts imbricated, deltoid-ovate, about 2.5 m m long and wide; bracteoles thin, scarious, elliptic, obtuse, 3 m m wide, 3.5-4 m m long, silky on the outer surface, fimbriate-ciliate; hypanthium glabrous within, prolonged at least 2 m m beyond the ovary; fruit oblate, not or scarcely ridged, densely and closely velutinous with short erect yellowish-brown hairs, 10-15 m m in diam or more when fully mature; ovary apparently bilocular, with 2 ovules in each locule.

    Williams described the fruit as "marron claro," referring presumably to the color of the hairs that completely obscure the surface. In most species from northern South America, collectors describe the fruits as "orange"

  • Distribution

    BRAZIL. Amazonas: "In ripa saepe inundata fluminis Teffe, ad urbem Ega"(imm buds), Poeppig 2882 (W, type; G, M I C H , P). V E N E Z U E L A . Amazonas:Puerto Ayacucho, elev 88 m, 24 ] May 1940 (nearly mature fr), Williams 13103 (F).

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