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Family:

Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Bot. Gaz. (Crawfordsville) 40: 3. 1905

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Holotype -- P. Wilson

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: Honduras, Wilson 575 (US!).

Description: Shrubs or trees 2-7(-12) m tall, the young branchlets, elevated leaf veins abaxially, inflorescences, and hypanthia sparsely and deciduously stellate puberulent. Leaves 3-plinerved, oblong-elliptic to oblong-ovate, 9.5-25 X 4-9.5 cm, essentially glabrous adaxially and on the actual surface abaxially, apex short-acuminate, base acute to obuse, the margin entire; petioles 1.5-3.5 cm long. Panicle 8-12(-20) cm long, the 5-merous flowers on pedicels 0.5-1 mm long, the early-deciduous bracteoles linear-oblong to narrowly elliptic, 0.5-1 mm long. Calyx silvery stellulate-furfuraceous adaxially, ca. 0.5 mm long from the torus, truncate and flangelike or with 5 shallowly undulate or bluntly apiculate lobes, exterior teeth obscure callose thickenings not projecting beyond the lobes. Petals oblong-obovate, 3-3.5 X 1.5-2 mm, conspicuously papillose. Stamens isomorphic; anthers subulate, white, 3.5-4.5 mm long with a ventrally inclined pore; connective thickened and dilated dorso-bsally into a blunt spur or rounded protuberance and a laterally incurved bilobed appendage irregularly fringed with stalked or sessile glands. Style glabrous, 8-9 mm long; stigma truncate; ovary 3-locular, 2/3 inferior, apex elevated into an essentially glabrous bowl-like collar; berry 5-8 X 5-7 mm, purple at maturity. Seeds smooth, typically semilunate but varying to irregularly deltoid-angulate, 2-2.5 mm long.

Habitat and Distribution: Locally common, rain forest, swamp forest, gallery forest, river margins. 0-500 m. MEXICO: Chiapas (Martínez 18398, CAS); BELIZE (Holst et al. 5136, CAS); GUATEMALA (Gentle 5493, CAS); HONDURAS (Saunders 1213, CAS); NICARAGUA (Grijalva & Soza 3761, CAS); COSTA RICA (Almeda & Nakai 4088, CAS); PANAMA (Almeda & McPherson 6020, CAS). (Endemic).

Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]