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Family:

Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Common Names:

peralejo, peralejo, peraleio

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: Venezuela, Bonpland 372 (P!).

Description: Shrub or small tree 1-8 m tall, the rounded-quadrate uppermost cauline internodes, petioles, abaxial foliar surfaces, inflorescence branches and bracteoles (abaxial surfaces), copiously covered with ferrugineous stalked-stellate hairs. Leaves of a pair essentially equal to subequal in size; blades 3(-5)-nerved, oblong-elliptic to oblong-ovate 5.5-14 x 3.7-6.6 cm, apex acute to short-acuminate, base rounded to cordulate, the margin entire, the adaxial surface on young leaves moderately to sparsely covered with stalked-stellate hairs but vernicose and glabrous to nearly so at maturity; petioles 0.3-1 cm long. Inflorescence a multiflowered panicle 8-18 cm long; flowers 5-merous and sessile, the early deciduous bracteoles narrowly linear or ± acicular to oblong or narrowly elliptic, 0.5-1.5 x 0.1 0.75 mm. Hypanthium covered with sessile and short-stalked stellate hairs. Calyx tube ca. 0.5-0.7 mm long, erect, the depressed semicircular to rounded-oblong calyx lobes 0.5 x 1 mm. Calyx tube and lobes collectively circumscissle and falling away as a ring on fruiting hypanthia; the exterior teeth obsolete or scarcely evident as callose thickenings. Petals white, densely papillose-granulose on the abaxial surface and along distal portions of the adaxial surface, obovate and reflexed, 2-2.5 x 1.5 mm. Anthers somewhat dimorphic in size and form, white, linear-oblong; thecae alternately 1.7-2.5 mm long with a dorsally inclined pore and 2.5-3 mm long with a ventrally inclined pore; connective prolonged dorso-basally into a heart-shaped appendage 0.5 mm long (large anthers) and into a spur-like appendage (small anthers) with a dorsal lobe 0.1 mm long and two lateral auriculiform lobes. Style glabrous, 3 mm long; stigma truncate; ovary 3-locular, 5/6 inferior in fruit, apex glabrous and bluntly fluted. Berry 3.5 x 4 mm when dry, blue-black at maturity. Seeds ovoid to ovoid-angulate with a broad raphe, rounded to angulate on the convex face, the testa smooth to vaguely rugulate, 1-1.5 mm long.

Habitat and Distribution: Locally common in degraded savannas, open Byrsonima woodland, and gallery forest. 80-1700 m. Greater Antilles (Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico), Trinidad, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, Surinam, and Brazil. COSTA RICA (Almeda et al. 3328, CAS); PANAMA (Schmalzel 1546, CAS).

Taxonomy and Systematics: Previous descriptions of M. rubiginosa make no mention of the circumscissle nature of the fused calyx lobes on fruiting hypanthia. The comparatively large seeds (1-1.5 mm), ferrugineous stalked-stellate indument, dimorphic androecium, and papillose-granulose petals are also distinctive.

Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Miconia rubiginosa (Bonpl.) DC.: [Article] Maguire, Bassett, et al. 1953. The Botany of the Guayana Highland. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 8 (2): 87-160.