Monographs Details:
Authority:
Luteyn, James L., et al. 1995. Ericaceae, Part II. The Superior-Ovaried Genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae P.P.). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 66: 560. (Published by NYBG Press)
Luteyn, James L., et al. 1995. Ericaceae, Part II. The Superior-Ovaried Genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae P.P.). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 66: 560. (Published by NYBG Press)
Family:
Ericaceae
Ericaceae
Synonyms:
Comarostaphylis arguta Zucc., Comarostaphylis discolor (Hook.) Diggs
Comarostaphylis arguta Zucc., Comarostaphylis discolor (Hook.) Diggs
Description:
Genus Description - Erect to spreading, or rarely trailing or mat-forming, evergreen or rarely facultatively drought-deciduous terrestrial shrubs to small trees to 20 m, capable of sprouting after fire damage; bark exfoliating, sometimes in patches, or peeling, shredding, or flaking; indumentum varying from glabrous to densely pubescent by stalked, swollen-headed glandular and/ or eglandular trichomes. Leaves alternate, horizontally oriented; lamina bifacial, plane to strongly revolute, usually coriaceous, margin entire or toothed; pinnately nerved. Inflorescences usually terminal, racemose, the racemes often clustered, or paniculate; floral bracts solitary at base of pedicels; pedicels slender, bibracteolate at base or sometimes to midway up the pedicel or at distal tip. Flowers (4-)5-merous; calyx continuous with pedicel, drying but persistent in fruit, lobes much longer than the tube, equal or nearly so, separate or slightly imbricate at anthesis, appressed to the corollas during flowering, becoming spreading to reflexed in fruit; corollas cylindric to nearly globose, greenish-white to white, pale yellow, pink, or red, glabrous or pubescent, lobes much shorter than the tube, imbricate before anthesis, spreading or recurved; stamens equal, the filaments dilated near base, villous or rarely glabrous, anthers ovoid, dehiscence by two pores/slits 1/4-1/3 to nearly 1/2 as long as the anther; ovary Arctostaphylos subgen. Comarostaphylis (Zuccarini) Drude in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. IV(1): 49. 1891. Erect to spreading, or rarely trailing or mat-forming, evergreen or rarely facultatively drought-deciduous terrestrial shrubs to small trees to 20 m, capable of sprouting after fire damage; bark exfoliating, sometimes in patches, or peeling, shredding, or flaking; indumentum varying from glabrous to densely pubescent by stalked, swollen-headed glandular and/ or eglandular trichomes. Leaves alternate, horizontally oriented; lamina bifacial, plane to strongly revolute, usually coriaceous, margin entire or toothed; pinnately nerved. Inflorescences usually terminal, racemose, the racemes often clustered, or paniculate; floral bracts solitary at base of pedicels; pedicels slender, bibracteolate at base or sometimes to midway up the pedicel or at distal tip. Flowers (4-)5-merous; calyx continuous with pedicel, drying but persistent in fruit, lobes much longer than the tube, equal or nearly so, separate or slightly imbricate at anthesis, appressed to the corollas during flowering, becoming spreading to reflexed in fruit; corollas cylindric to nearly globose, greenish-white to white, pale yellow, pink, or red, glabrous or pubescent, lobes much shorter than the tube, imbricate before anthesis, spreading or recurved; stamens equal, the filaments dilated near base, villous or rarely glabrous, anthers ovoid, dehiscence by two pores/slits 1/4-1/3 to nearly 1/2 as long as the anther; ovary superior, papillate, glabrous or pubescent, sessile on a weakly 10-lobed or ribbed, hypogynous, disk-like nectary, ovules solitary in each locule, pendulous; style straight, included or slightly exserted, often persistent; stigma minute, slightly capitate. Fruit drupaceous, warty, granular or papillate because of the presence of multicellular papillae radiating more or less perpendicularly outward, globose, juicy, nearly black to dark purple (red) at maturity; nutlets united into a solid, spheroidal, thick-walled, stonelike endocarp; seeds 1-1.5 mm long, solitary in each nutlet, pendulous by a short, persistent, gray, caplike funiculus; testa reticulate, thick walled; embryo spathulate; chromosome number: n = 13 (Hagerup, 1928; Schierenbeck & Diggs, unpublished data).
Genus Description - Erect to spreading, or rarely trailing or mat-forming, evergreen or rarely facultatively drought-deciduous terrestrial shrubs to small trees to 20 m, capable of sprouting after fire damage; bark exfoliating, sometimes in patches, or peeling, shredding, or flaking; indumentum varying from glabrous to densely pubescent by stalked, swollen-headed glandular and/ or eglandular trichomes. Leaves alternate, horizontally oriented; lamina bifacial, plane to strongly revolute, usually coriaceous, margin entire or toothed; pinnately nerved. Inflorescences usually terminal, racemose, the racemes often clustered, or paniculate; floral bracts solitary at base of pedicels; pedicels slender, bibracteolate at base or sometimes to midway up the pedicel or at distal tip. Flowers (4-)5-merous; calyx continuous with pedicel, drying but persistent in fruit, lobes much longer than the tube, equal or nearly so, separate or slightly imbricate at anthesis, appressed to the corollas during flowering, becoming spreading to reflexed in fruit; corollas cylindric to nearly globose, greenish-white to white, pale yellow, pink, or red, glabrous or pubescent, lobes much shorter than the tube, imbricate before anthesis, spreading or recurved; stamens equal, the filaments dilated near base, villous or rarely glabrous, anthers ovoid, dehiscence by two pores/slits 1/4-1/3 to nearly 1/2 as long as the anther; ovary Arctostaphylos subgen. Comarostaphylis (Zuccarini) Drude in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. IV(1): 49. 1891. Erect to spreading, or rarely trailing or mat-forming, evergreen or rarely facultatively drought-deciduous terrestrial shrubs to small trees to 20 m, capable of sprouting after fire damage; bark exfoliating, sometimes in patches, or peeling, shredding, or flaking; indumentum varying from glabrous to densely pubescent by stalked, swollen-headed glandular and/ or eglandular trichomes. Leaves alternate, horizontally oriented; lamina bifacial, plane to strongly revolute, usually coriaceous, margin entire or toothed; pinnately nerved. Inflorescences usually terminal, racemose, the racemes often clustered, or paniculate; floral bracts solitary at base of pedicels; pedicels slender, bibracteolate at base or sometimes to midway up the pedicel or at distal tip. Flowers (4-)5-merous; calyx continuous with pedicel, drying but persistent in fruit, lobes much longer than the tube, equal or nearly so, separate or slightly imbricate at anthesis, appressed to the corollas during flowering, becoming spreading to reflexed in fruit; corollas cylindric to nearly globose, greenish-white to white, pale yellow, pink, or red, glabrous or pubescent, lobes much shorter than the tube, imbricate before anthesis, spreading or recurved; stamens equal, the filaments dilated near base, villous or rarely glabrous, anthers ovoid, dehiscence by two pores/slits 1/4-1/3 to nearly 1/2 as long as the anther; ovary superior, papillate, glabrous or pubescent, sessile on a weakly 10-lobed or ribbed, hypogynous, disk-like nectary, ovules solitary in each locule, pendulous; style straight, included or slightly exserted, often persistent; stigma minute, slightly capitate. Fruit drupaceous, warty, granular or papillate because of the presence of multicellular papillae radiating more or less perpendicularly outward, globose, juicy, nearly black to dark purple (red) at maturity; nutlets united into a solid, spheroidal, thick-walled, stonelike endocarp; seeds 1-1.5 mm long, solitary in each nutlet, pendulous by a short, persistent, gray, caplike funiculus; testa reticulate, thick walled; embryo spathulate; chromosome number: n = 13 (Hagerup, 1928; Schierenbeck & Diggs, unpublished data).
Discussion:
NotesBecause of their use in population studies, most Diggs collections are numbered Diggs et al. 3767a, 3767b, 3767c, etc. The lowercase letters represent the different individuals of a local population collected from the same locality at the same time. However, in the lists of specimens cited and in the List of Exsiccatae, collecting numbers are given without the lowercase letters.Photographs of type material are deposited at MEXU, NY, and WIS, and negatives at NY.
NotesBecause of their use in population studies, most Diggs collections are numbered Diggs et al. 3767a, 3767b, 3767c, etc. The lowercase letters represent the different individuals of a local population collected from the same locality at the same time. However, in the lists of specimens cited and in the List of Exsiccatae, collecting numbers are given without the lowercase letters.Photographs of type material are deposited at MEXU, NY, and WIS, and negatives at NY.