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Family:

Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot. 16: 164. 1850

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Isotype -- Martii Herbar. Florae Brasil.

Description:

Description Author and Date: Frank Almeda, based on Almeda, F. (2009). Melastomataceae. In: G. Davidse, M. Sousa-Sânchez, S. Knapp, & F. Chiang (eds.), Flora Mesoamericana: Cucurbitaceae a Polemoniaceae. 4(1): 164-338.

Type: Holotype: Brazil, Luschnath (Mart. Herb. Fl. 498) (P!).

Description: Shrubs or small trees (1-)2-4 m tall, the young branchlets, primary leaf veins abaxially, inflorescences, and hypanthia very sparingly and deciduously covered with stellulate hairs and/or minute oblong glands. Leaves 5-plinerved, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 10-25.5 X 5-12.5 cm, adaxially appearing glabrous but often sparsely and obscurely beset with minute oblong glands, abaxially glabrous on the actual surface, apex gradually acuminate, base acute to obtuse, the margin entire to obscurely and bluntly ciliolate-serrulat; petioles 1.5-5 cm long. Panicle 4-8(-12) cm long, the 4-merous flowers sessile on the divaricate ultimate branchlets, the persistent setaceous bracteoles 0.25-0.5 mm long. Calyx hyaline, closed in bud and crowned by a short apiculum but rupturing irregularly at anthesis, the setiform exterior teeth 0.25 mm long and not projecting beyond the lobes. Petals glabrous, oblong-obovate, 1-1.2 X 0.5-0.7 mm. Stamens isomorphic; anthers oblong, 1.5-2 mm long, yellow, the apical pore dorsally inclined; connective prolonged ca. 0.2 mm and distended into a blunt compressed dorso-basal spur 0.25 mm long. Style glabrous, 2-3 mm long; stigma not expanded; ovary (2-)3-locular, 2/3 inferior, apex obscurely and deciduously glandular or stellulate-puberulent; berry 3-5 X 3-4.5 mm, blue-purple to blue-black at maturity. Seeds narrowly angulate-oblong to clavate with a tuberculate testa but appearing arcuate because of the dilated testa at the distal end that forms a foveolate spur of enlarged cells, 0.7-1 mm long.

Habitat and Distribution: Local and uncommon, rain forest, stream margins. ; 0-1300 m. Trinidad, French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela and Colombia south to Bolivia and southeastern Brazil. BELIZE (Holst et al. 5168, CAS); GUATEMALA (Martínez et al. 22933, CAS); H (MacDougal et al. 3403, CAS); NICARAGUA (Martinez & Riviere 2010, CAS); COSTA RICA (Smith 107, CAS); PANAMA (Knapp 5891, CAS).

Taxonomy and Systematics: Petals of this species are typically glabrous but several Central American specimens have margins that are remotely glandular-ciliolate.

Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Miconia centrodesma Naudin: [Article] Maguire, Bassett & Wurdack, John J. 1961. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part IV (2). Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 10: 1-87.