Renner, Susanne S. 1989. Systematic studies in the Melastomataceae Bellucia, Loreya and Macairea. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 50: 1-112.
Melastomataceae
Species Description - Shrub or tree, 3-15x0.10-0.15 m; bark brown, fissured, on the twigs scaly; twigs with pronounced nodes and longitudinal rows of pustulelike lenticels. Leaves 20-35(-40) x 12-28 cm, broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, broadly acute at base, with the inner pair of lateral primaries departing 1-2 cm above the base, glabrous; petioles 2-5 cm long. Cymes congested, few or 1-flowered, on the trunk or branches below the leaves or in the axils of existing leaves, glabrous; pedicels 10-15 mm long. Flowers 5-6(-7)-merous; hypanthium ca. 10 mm long, glabrous; calyx dehiscing into (4-)5-6 triangular lobes, 5-7 mm long, persistent; petals 15-18(-20) mm long, white, sometimes pink-flushed outside; stamens 10(-11-)12(-13-)14, filaments 5-7 mm long, thecae ca. 6 mm long; ovary 12-13(-14)-locular; style 20-22 mm long. Fruit a greenish-yellow, subglabrous berry. Seeds ca. 0.6 mm long, ovoid, irregularly tuberculate and with shallow grooves.
Distribution and Ecology - Distribution and ecology (Fig. 9): Bellucia pentamera occurs from southem Mexico south, along both sides of the Andes, to Bolivia and to the eastern periphery ofthe Amazon basin in Brazil. It usually grows on non-flooded ground, but sometimes in riverine forest and is twice reported from regularly inundated (varzea) vegetation; lowlands to 1650 m elevation.
Type: Peru. Cuzco: Nr. town of Cuzco, Gay 1269 (holotype: P!, F photo neg. 36338!; isotype: P!).
Figs. 1C; 2J; 5E, F.
Axinanthera macrophylla Karsten, Linnaea 30: 157. Post Apr 1859; Bellucia axinanthera Triana, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 28: 142. 1871, nom. illegit. (according to Art. 63 of I.C.B.N.). Type: Colombia. Meta: Nr. Villavicencio, Karsten s.n. (holotype: LE; isotypes: F!, W!).
Bellucia costaricensis Cogniaux, Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot.
Belgique 30(1): 264. 1891b. Type: Costa Rica. Alajuela: Nr. Buenos Aires, Pittier 3916 (lectotype here designated: BR!; isolectotypes: BR!, US!).
Bellucia weberbaueri Cogniaux, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 42: 148. 1908. Type: Pem. San Martin: Moyobamba, Aug 1904, Weberbauer 4505 (holotype: BR frag.!). Isotype at B destroyed, but represented by a photo, Fneg. 17250.
Bellucia aricuaizensium Pittier, Explor. Cuenca de Maracaibo 40. 1923. Type: Venezuela. Zulia: Rio Lora, 14 Dec 1922, Pittier 10956 (holotype: US!; isotype: NY!).
Bellucia pentamera was introduced successfully on Guadeloupe and at Bogor in Java (Helten, 1923; van Steenis, 1975), and is n ow spontaneously regenerating in Java, Sumatra, Bomeo, and West Malaysia (Stone, 1972). Prior to 1953 it was brought to the Congo area where it became widely naturalized. Apparently, an attempt to introduce this species in Surinam failed: repeated collections from a single plant (tree no. 1654, B.W. herb. nos. 1985, 2508, 2655, 2725, 5005, 5571) growing in Watramiri south of Paramaibo during the years 1916-1920 remain the only record of the species from the Guianas. A number of collections appear to be hybrids between Bellucia pentamera and B. grossularioides. The specimens possess flowers on the branches below the leaves as in B. pentamera.
Their calyces, however, diflfer from that of typical B. pentamera in that the lobes do not split all the way and are apically hyaline, thus resembling the calyptra of B. grossularioides. In some flowers, three or four lobes may be completely connate, whilst a fifth m a y be a normal triangular sepal. In their bark, these specimens resemble B. pentamera, i.e., the bark is light tan colored and scaly or flaky, but in number of stamens they are intermediate between the parents having mostly 14 stamens; pure B. pentamera has 10-72-14 and pure B. grossularioides (14-) 16-18. Oliveira 1400, from Goias, Brazil, is almost certainly such a hybrid. The collections Steyermark & Luteyn 129711 from Amazonas, Venezuela (from the same tree as Thomas 3375 and Renner s.n.; flowers in FAA in my collection). Gentry et al. 18585 and Diaz 954 from Loreto, Pem, and Sastre 2008 from Guadeloupe, also appear to come from hybrids. In each case, both parents are known to occur in the area where the hybrids have been collected. A putative hybrid between B. pentamera and B. aequiloba from Bolivia (Fernandez Casas & Susanna 8201) has already been mentioned under the latter species. Bellucia pentamera is illustrated in the Flora Columbiae (Karsten, 1861), Mutis' Flora de la Real Expedicion (1760-1817; 1983), Stone (1972), and in the floras of Panama (Gleason, 1958), Guatemala (Standley & Williams, 1963), Cundinamarca (Uribe Uribe, 1972), and Ecuador (Wurdack, 1980a).
pomarrosa, galleta, tundkia, manzana de montaña, coronillo, oreja de mula, urano, coronillo, níspero, guayavo de pava, guayavo-pomo, túnguia, tunkia, tugkia, bispera, dispero, níspero, yujash, yuhac, yuhis, araça de anta, goiaba de anta, jambo do mato