Taxon Profile:

	The Plant List
	International Plant Name Index
	Tropicos
	Catalogue of Life
	Global Biodiversity Information Facility
	JSTOR Types
	JSTOR
	BHL
	Encyclopedia of Life
	WikiSpecies
	Google Scholar
	PubMed
	Morphbank
	IUCN
	National Center for Biotechnology Information
	Barcode of Life

Family:

Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Monogr. Phan. 7: 1025. 1891

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

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.

Description: Woody climbing vines with adventitious roots appressed to tree trunks. Leaves strongly dimorphic in each pair; blades ovate, apex acuminate, base cordate to rounded, the margin irregularly serrulate; larger leaf at each node 7-9-nerved, (5-)10.5-27.5 cm long, (2.7-)7.5-17.5 cm wide, petioles 2-14(-20) cm long; smaller leaf 3-nerved, early deciduous, 1-1.8(-3.7) cm long, 0.7-2 cm wide, petioles 0.2-1.5 cm long. Inflorescence a basally branched few-flowered paniculiform cyme 1-3.5 cm long borne in opposite upper leaf axils and at nodes below the leaves; flowers 4-merous, the pedicels 1-4 mm long, the persistent bracteoles elliptic to narrowLy triangular, 1-2 X 0.5-1 mm. Hypanthia sparsely beset with spreading obscurely barbellate hairs and an inconspicuous ground layer of minute deciduous glandular hairs, calyx lobes inconspicuous, broadly triangular-ovate, 1-1.5 X 1.5 mm, the conspicuous elliptic-ovate ciliolate exterior teeth 2-4 mm long from the torus (fruiting hypanthia), the torus within glabrous. Petals white, glabrous, obovate-oblong, 2-3 X 0.5-1 mm. Filaments 1.5-2 mm long; anther sacs 1.5 mm long with a dorsally inclined pore; connective neither prolonged nor appendaged. Ovary 4-locular, completely inferior, the apex glabrous, berry 3.5-4 mm diam, bluish-violet when ripe. Seeds smooth, linear-pyramidate, ca 0.5 mm long.

Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]