Campomanesia xanthocarpa O.Berg

• Authority

  Landrum, Leslie R. 1986. Campomanesia, Pimenta, Blepharocalyx, Legrandia, Acca, Myrrhinium, and Luma (Myrtaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 45: 1-178. (Published by NYBG Press)

• Family

  Myrtaceae

• Scientific Name

  Campomanesia xanthocarpa O.Berg

• Type

  Type. Brazil.  Ad Porto Alegre prov. Rio Grande do Sul, Pater Joannes de S. Barbara s.n. (specimen at BR hereby designated as the lectotype; NY neg. 11518 of lectotype);  prope Castro prov. S. Pauli, Sellow s.n. (possible paratypes, K, LE); Regnell I. n. 126, 126.b, 126.C (paratype, BR). Berg s general statement on the location of types is  v. florif. in hb. Sellow., Sonder. et Mart., fructif. in hb. Sonder.

• Description

  Species Description - Shrub or tree 1-15 m high; hairs yellowish-brown or whitish, ca. 0.1-0.5 mm long; young twigs reddish-brown to yellowish-green, sparsely puberulent to glabrescent. Leaves probably persisting ca. 1 year, about full grown at anthesis although sometimes still tender, elliptic, lanceolate, ovate, obovate, or suborbicular, 1.2-13 cm long, 1-6.2 cm wide, 1.2-2.9(-3.6) times as long as wide, minutely puberulent to glabrescent, tufts of hairs often present in the axils of some of the main veins below; apex acuminate, acute, abruptly acuminate, obtuse, or rounded; base acute, cuneate, acuminate, rounded, or subcordate; petiole (1-)3-15 mm long, 0.5-1 mm thick, glabrous or puberulent; midvein impressed slightly to nearly flat above, prominent below; lateral veins 3-8 pairs, usually leaving the midvein at an angle of 45° or less, the venation brochidodromous; blades at maturity submembranous to subcoriaceous, drying reddish-brown to olive-green, sometimes darker above than below, flat or undulate, the margin entire, sinuate, or crenate. Peduncles uniflorous, 1.5-4 cm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, solitary in the axils of leaves or bracts, glabrous or nearly so; bracteoles normally linear, 2-6 mm long, 0.3-1 mm wide, sparsely pubescent to glabrous, caducous at about anthesis; calyx-lobes triangular, oblong-ovate, or truncate, 1.5-4.5 mm long, 1.5-4.5 mm wide, 0.7-1.6 times as long as wide, puberulent within, glabrous to minutely puberulent without; petals suborbicular to obovate, 7-15 mm long; hypanthium infundibular to campanulate, 2-5 mm long, glabrous to minutely puberulent; disk ca. 3-5 mm across, puberulent to glabrous; stamens 60-200, 4-10 mm long; anthers 0.7-1 mm long; style 5-12 mm long, glabrous; ovary 6-10-locular; ovules 4-14 per locule. Fruit subglobose, 1-3 cm in diam., orange when ripe. Seeds 16 in fruits seen, 5-8 mm long including locule-wall, the locule-wall one gland thick.

• Discussion

  Campomanesia xanthocarpa is distinguished by: being a tree of forests or a shrub of “restingas”; leaves that are full grown at anthesis and that usually have tufts of hairs in the axils of the main veins beneath; peduncles that are longer than the flowers and usually glabrous or obscurely puberulent; and Calyx-lobes that are mainly oblong-ovate. It is similar to C. reitziana and C. eugenioides var. eugenioides and is compared with them under the treatments of those species. It is contrasted with the allied C. aromatica in Key E, lead 3, and with C. adamantium in the discussion below.

  Campomanesia xanthocarpa has two ecologically different types that I have chosen to recognize as varieties.