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Family:

Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Hist. Pl. Guiane 1: 437. 1775

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Description:

Description Author and Date: Fabian A. Michelangeli, January 2010, based on Michelangeli, F. A. (2005). Tococa (Melastomataceae). Flora Neotropica Monographs 98: 1-114.

Type species: Tococa guianensis Aubl., Hist. Pl. Guiane. 1: 438, t. 174. 1775.

Description: Woody shrubs, erect or procumbent, small trees, rarely climbing or creeping vines, occasionally producing adventitious roots. Young stems and petioles glabrous or with long glandular trichomes, the nodes glabrous. Leaves opposite, isophyllous or anisophyllous, elliptic to lanceolate, membranaceous, chartaceous or coriaceous, the adaxial surface green, the abaxial surface green or pale red to crimson or purple, glabrous to glandular pubescent, margins entire to slightly ciliolate-serrulate, seldom revolute, apex acuminate, aristate, acute or rounded, base acute to cordate, the sinus up to 7 mm long, nerves 3-7 basinervate or plinervate; swollen ant domatium often occurring at the base of the blade or the apex of the petiole, sometimes immersed on the leaf blade, the base of the leaf then attaching laterally or adaxially on the domatium, or domatia absent. Inflorescence of 2 to 50 flowers, a terminal panicle, raceme or pseudo-terminal cyme or panicle, bracts usually small and caducous, seldom over 10 mm, the axis green or magenta. Flowers (4-) 5 (-6) merous; hypanthium in cross section often terete, seldom winged, conical, infundibuliform or globose, glabrous or pubescent; calyx more or less lobed, the outer teeth often developed, deltoid or subulate, adnate the sepals; the sepals opposite the outer teeth, often truncate, rarely developed; petals alternate the calyx lobes, obovate to ovate, reflexed 30º to 90º, emarginated at the apex, the base obtuse to cuneiform or attenuate, with or without glands, smooth, pruinosus or granulosus, usually white or pink, rarely red, green, yellow, or orange; stamens twice as many as the petals, all of the same size or nearly so, exerted at anthesis, often then migrating towards one side of the flower giving the flower a zygomorphic aspect; filaments flattened (ribbon-like), cream to yellow, glabrous, rarely pubescent at the base; anthers usually stout, erect, seldom reflexed, the apex sometimes inflexed, yellow to cream or blue to lilac or purple; connective often prolonged into a minute dorso-basal tooth (less than 0.1 mm); thecae apex acuminate, with a single apical pore oriented ventrally, apically, or dorsally, base slightly cordate; ovary 1/3 to completely inferior, 3 (4-5) locular, apex conical to rounded, with or without a corona of glandular setae; style glabrous or sparsely pubescent at the base; stigma capitate, funneliform or truncate. Fruit baccate, ovoid or urceolate, terete or winged, blue or black at maturity, glabrous or pubescent; seeds numerous, truncate obovate, triangular, or narrowly ovate, the antiraphal area usually curved, the raphe occupying 60% to 95% of the total length of the seed, rarely less than 30%, 0.2-3.0 mm long, the anticlinal walls of the testa cells straight, sculpturing absent, periclinal walls flat or convex, trichomes in the raphal area present or absent. Chromosome number n= 17, 28.

Taxonomy and Systematics: This description is based on those species here treated as Tococa sensu stricto. Characters found in the species treated as insertae sedis, but excluded from this description, include the presence of seeds with sculptured testa and cells with the anticlinal walls s-shaped, and anthers of different size present. Additionally, some species treated in the insertae sedis have tufts of glandular and non-glandular trichomes (up to 25 mm long) at the stem nodes and the presence of a glandular ring inside the torus. One species (T. carolensis) has a dehiscent calyx and anther numbers more than double the number of petals.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Tococa: [Article] Michelangeli, Fabián A. 2005. (Melastomataceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 98: 1-114.