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Family:

Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Hort. Brit. (Loudon) 174. 1830

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Common Names:

lengua de vaca

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: Lectotype (designated by Howard & Kellogg, 1986): Jamaica, Swartz s.n. (S).

Description: Trees 4-16 m tall, the distal branchlets, young leaves, inflorescences, and hypanthia moderately covered with a stellulate-lepidote indument, the young branches conspicuously flattened and two-edged with a prominent interpetiolar ridge at the nodes. Leaves 3-plinerved, elliptic, 12-25(-30) X 5-12 cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially moderately but inconspicuously beset with minute stellulate-lepidote hairs, apex acute to short-acuminate, base acute and shortly decurrent on the petiole, the margin entire; petioles 0.5-2.5 cm long. Panicle 10-25 cm long, narrow and oblong; flowers 5-merous, sessile and secund on the scorpioid branchlets, the bracteoles triangular to triangular-ovate, persistent, 0.5-1(-1.5) mm long. Calyx tube 0.5 mm long, the broadly rounded apiculate lobes 0.25 mm long, the blunt inconspicuous exterior teeth 0.25 mm long and not projecting. Petals minutely papillose or granulose, oblong-obovate, 2-2.5 X 1-1.5 mm. Stamens somewhat unequal; anthers oblong-clavate, alternately 1.5-2 mm and 2-2.5 mm long, white, the broad pore retuse to dorsally inclined; connective prolonged 0.25 mm, dorso-basally dilated into an obscurely trilobed or biauriculate collar. Style glabrous, 4-5 mm long; stigma capitate; ovary 3-locular, 2/3 inferior, apex papillose to glabrate; berry 4-6 X 4-6 mm, purple at maturity. Seeds ovoid to pyramidate, smooth and rounded to bluntly angulate, 1 mm long.

Habitat and Distribution: Locally common, rain forest, cloud forest, river margins. 10-1350 m. Southern Mexico (Puebla, Veracruz, and Oaxaca), Jamaica, French Guiana, Venezuela and Colombia south to Bolivia and Amazonian Brazil. MEXICO: Tabasco (Cowan et al. 3436, CAS); Chiapas (Breedlove 26434, DS); GUATEMALA (Contreras 4660, CAS); HONDURAS (Aguilar & Evans 4082, CAS); NICARAGUA (Moreno 23086, CAS); COSTA RICA (Almeda & Nakai 4108, CAS); PANAMA (McPherson 10855, CAS).

Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]