Monographs Details:
Authority:
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Family:
Melastomataceae
Melastomataceae
Description:
Species Description - A shrub, inhabiting banks and thickets in moist parts of the central and western districts of Porto Rico, ascending to higher elevations, with broad, hairy leaves and glandular-hairy twigs-and flower-clusters, the small, white, axillary flowers nearly stalkless or short-stalked. The range of the species is through the Greater Antilles, and in northern South America. Clidemia, established as a genus by David Don in 1823, comprises about 100 kinds of shrubs, all natives of tropical America. He dedicated it to Clidemus, an ancient Greek physician, who studied plant diseases. These shrubs have opposite, stalked, 3-nerved to 7-nerved leaves, and small, 4-parted to 6-parted flowers in axillary clusters. The calyx, attached to the ovary, is variously toothed, or lobed, the petals blunt, or notched; there are, usually, twice as many stamens as petals, the filaments very slender, the narrow anthers opening by a terminal pore; the ovary is from 3-celled to 5-celled, with many ovules, the style short, or long, the stigma very small. The fruit is a many-seeded, usually hairy berry. Clidemia strigillosa (referring to the hairyness) is about meter high, or lower, its twigs, leaf-stalks, flower-clusters and calyx densely glandular-hairy. The ovate, or elliptic, thin, finely toothed, pointed, 7-nerved leaves are from 5 to 12 centimeters long, dark green and bristly hairy on the upper side, paler green and hirsute on the under, the base rounded, or somewhat heart-shaped; their stalks are 1 or 2 centimeters long. The flower-clusters are dense, stalked, mostly shorter than the leaves; the individual flowers are nearly stalkless or short-stalked, 5-parted, or 6-parted; the calyx-tube is about 5 millimeters long:, its inner teeth 8 or 3 millimeters long, the outer ones from 5 to 7 millimeters long; the white petals are about 5 millimeters long. The globose, or ovoid, black berries are loosely hairy, about 6 millimeters in diameter. There are three other species of Clidemia in the Porto Rico Flora, one of them, endemic, probably exterminated.
Species Description - A shrub, inhabiting banks and thickets in moist parts of the central and western districts of Porto Rico, ascending to higher elevations, with broad, hairy leaves and glandular-hairy twigs-and flower-clusters, the small, white, axillary flowers nearly stalkless or short-stalked. The range of the species is through the Greater Antilles, and in northern South America. Clidemia, established as a genus by David Don in 1823, comprises about 100 kinds of shrubs, all natives of tropical America. He dedicated it to Clidemus, an ancient Greek physician, who studied plant diseases. These shrubs have opposite, stalked, 3-nerved to 7-nerved leaves, and small, 4-parted to 6-parted flowers in axillary clusters. The calyx, attached to the ovary, is variously toothed, or lobed, the petals blunt, or notched; there are, usually, twice as many stamens as petals, the filaments very slender, the narrow anthers opening by a terminal pore; the ovary is from 3-celled to 5-celled, with many ovules, the style short, or long, the stigma very small. The fruit is a many-seeded, usually hairy berry. Clidemia strigillosa (referring to the hairyness) is about meter high, or lower, its twigs, leaf-stalks, flower-clusters and calyx densely glandular-hairy. The ovate, or elliptic, thin, finely toothed, pointed, 7-nerved leaves are from 5 to 12 centimeters long, dark green and bristly hairy on the upper side, paler green and hirsute on the under, the base rounded, or somewhat heart-shaped; their stalks are 1 or 2 centimeters long. The flower-clusters are dense, stalked, mostly shorter than the leaves; the individual flowers are nearly stalkless or short-stalked, 5-parted, or 6-parted; the calyx-tube is about 5 millimeters long:, its inner teeth 8 or 3 millimeters long, the outer ones from 5 to 7 millimeters long; the white petals are about 5 millimeters long. The globose, or ovoid, black berries are loosely hairy, about 6 millimeters in diameter. There are three other species of Clidemia in the Porto Rico Flora, one of them, endemic, probably exterminated.
Discussion:
Meadow-beauty Family Melastoma strigillosa Swartz, Prodromus Descriptionum Vegetabilium 71. 1788 Clidemia strigillosa De Candolle Prodromus 3: 159. 1828. Staphidium spicatum Naudin, Annales des Sciences Naturelles III. 17: 316.1852,
Meadow-beauty Family Melastoma strigillosa Swartz, Prodromus Descriptionum Vegetabilium 71. 1788 Clidemia strigillosa De Candolle Prodromus 3: 159. 1828. Staphidium spicatum Naudin, Annales des Sciences Naturelles III. 17: 316.1852,
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