Monographs Details:
Authority:
Morley, Thomas. 1976. Melastomataceae tribe Memecyleae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 15: 1-295. (Published by NYBG Press)
Morley, Thomas. 1976. Melastomataceae tribe Memecyleae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 15: 1-295. (Published by NYBG Press)
Family:
Melastomataceae
Melastomataceae
Synonyms:
Bockia Scop., Petaloma Sw., Guildingia, Aulacocarpus Berg, Olisbea
Bockia Scop., Petaloma Sw., Guildingia, Aulacocarpus Berg, Olisbea
Description:
Description - Shrubs or trees, usually glabrous; branchlets terete to 4-angled to 4-winged; stone cells present in pith and cortex at node and in base of petiole, sometimes extending into the internode or out the midrib to its tip, or both, sometimes diffuse in the lamina; node unilacunar. Leaves decussate, sessile or short-petiolate, estipúlate or the node often with an interpetiolar line, short lacerate membrane, or series of small scales or awns; blades with revolute vernation, pinnate-nerved or rarely subtrinerved, often only the midrib apparent, thin or often thick-coriaceous, sometimes irregularly translucent-speckled when held to light, the speckles apparently the terminal sclereids within (see below); midrib xylem open above or the margins fused above to form a cylinder; stomata superficial or in crypts or both, the crypts varying greatly in shape, almost always with a single cavity, very rarely with two; sclereids terminal on the vein endings present or perhaps very rarely absent, varying from spherical to branched or columnar to filiform; upper epidermis mostly one or two cells thick, rarely three or more, the cells polygonal in surface view; hypodermis present or absent; mucilaginous walls present or absent in epidermis or hypodermis. Flowers in a small thyrse or dichasium or single, sometimes umbelloid or fasciculate, axillary or ramiflorous or cauliflorous or more than one condition present. Flowers (4-)5-merous or abnormally 6-merous; hypanthium together with inferior ovary turbinate, campanulate, hemispherical, or obconic, usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent; free hypanthium well-developed to none; calyx limb lobed, truncate, or fully fused to enclose the petals before anthesis, when fully fused then splitting regularly or irregularly at anthesis, when truncate splitting into lobes, or when lobed the lobes often separating further at anthesis, the lobes quincuncial before anthesis when 5. Petals purple to pink to white or yellow or rarely red, lanceolate to ovate, triangular, trullate, elliptic, or obovate, sometimes papillose, the margins often fringed or crisped, lacking free stone cells. Stamens isomorphic, slightly dimorphic, or rarely dimorphic; filaments usually folded inward in bud and straight at anthesis, rarely short in bud and not unfolding at anthesis; anthers usually yellow, linear-oblong to subreniform; sporangia straight or curved, adaxial at anthesis, dehiscent by two lengthwise slits or apical slits or pores or rarely by a single apical pore; connective usually more or less caudate below on abaxial side; an elliptic depressed gland usually present on the abaxial side of the connective or the gland rarely through modification on the adaxial side or terminal or lacking. Ovary 1-5-locular; placentation free-central, axile, axile-basal, or basal or parietal with ovules on all sides of the placenta in each locule, the locules close together to widely separated; ovules bent 90° at the chalazal attachment, or anatropous, 2 to many per locule, 4-80 per ovary. Style when fully elongated filiform, exserted, the stigma pointed or truncate; style deciduous from the developing fruit. Berry 1-12-seeded, often crowned by the hypanthium and calyx. Seed polished at least on the enlarged outer face of the ovule, often all over except for the hilum, the testa often adhering to the locule wall; radicle short and straight, the cotyledons thick, fleshy, and plano-convex. Terminal sclereids and stone cells variously present in ovary, calyx, and petals.
Description - Shrubs or trees, usually glabrous; branchlets terete to 4-angled to 4-winged; stone cells present in pith and cortex at node and in base of petiole, sometimes extending into the internode or out the midrib to its tip, or both, sometimes diffuse in the lamina; node unilacunar. Leaves decussate, sessile or short-petiolate, estipúlate or the node often with an interpetiolar line, short lacerate membrane, or series of small scales or awns; blades with revolute vernation, pinnate-nerved or rarely subtrinerved, often only the midrib apparent, thin or often thick-coriaceous, sometimes irregularly translucent-speckled when held to light, the speckles apparently the terminal sclereids within (see below); midrib xylem open above or the margins fused above to form a cylinder; stomata superficial or in crypts or both, the crypts varying greatly in shape, almost always with a single cavity, very rarely with two; sclereids terminal on the vein endings present or perhaps very rarely absent, varying from spherical to branched or columnar to filiform; upper epidermis mostly one or two cells thick, rarely three or more, the cells polygonal in surface view; hypodermis present or absent; mucilaginous walls present or absent in epidermis or hypodermis. Flowers in a small thyrse or dichasium or single, sometimes umbelloid or fasciculate, axillary or ramiflorous or cauliflorous or more than one condition present. Flowers (4-)5-merous or abnormally 6-merous; hypanthium together with inferior ovary turbinate, campanulate, hemispherical, or obconic, usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent; free hypanthium well-developed to none; calyx limb lobed, truncate, or fully fused to enclose the petals before anthesis, when fully fused then splitting regularly or irregularly at anthesis, when truncate splitting into lobes, or when lobed the lobes often separating further at anthesis, the lobes quincuncial before anthesis when 5. Petals purple to pink to white or yellow or rarely red, lanceolate to ovate, triangular, trullate, elliptic, or obovate, sometimes papillose, the margins often fringed or crisped, lacking free stone cells. Stamens isomorphic, slightly dimorphic, or rarely dimorphic; filaments usually folded inward in bud and straight at anthesis, rarely short in bud and not unfolding at anthesis; anthers usually yellow, linear-oblong to subreniform; sporangia straight or curved, adaxial at anthesis, dehiscent by two lengthwise slits or apical slits or pores or rarely by a single apical pore; connective usually more or less caudate below on abaxial side; an elliptic depressed gland usually present on the abaxial side of the connective or the gland rarely through modification on the adaxial side or terminal or lacking. Ovary 1-5-locular; placentation free-central, axile, axile-basal, or basal or parietal with ovules on all sides of the placenta in each locule, the locules close together to widely separated; ovules bent 90° at the chalazal attachment, or anatropous, 2 to many per locule, 4-80 per ovary. Style when fully elongated filiform, exserted, the stigma pointed or truncate; style deciduous from the developing fruit. Berry 1-12-seeded, often crowned by the hypanthium and calyx. Seed polished at least on the enlarged outer face of the ovule, often all over except for the hilum, the testa often adhering to the locule wall; radicle short and straight, the cotyledons thick, fleshy, and plano-convex. Terminal sclereids and stone cells variously present in ovary, calyx, and petals.