Mouriri brevipes Hook.

  • Authority

    Morley, Thomas. 1976. Melastomataceae tribe Memecyleae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 15: 1-295. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Melastomataceae

  • Scientific Name

    Mouriri brevipes Hook.

  • Type

    Type. Guyana. In flower; no date, R. Schomburgk 690 (holotype, K, Herbarium Benthamianum; isotypes BM, BR, CGE, F-frag., Fl, G, G-DC, IAN-frag., K, L, NY, OXF, P, W).

  • Description

    Description - Glabrous shrub or tree to 12 m high with a trunk to ca 13 cm in diameter; young twigs terete to 4-angled; trunk rather straight, round, without branches in the lower part; bark thin, light brown to whitish, smooth to rough with numerous small thin scales; wood heavy; sapwood a light color, darkening on exposure to air (Williams 14906); wood dark yellow (Chagas sn, INPA 2197). Petioles 0.5-3.0 mm long; blades 5.7-14.5 cm long, 2.4-7.2 cm wide, ovate or ovate-elliptic to elliptic, acute, acuminate, or abruptly acuminate at the apex, acute to rounded at base; midrib grooved above, rounded below; lateral nerves obscurely visible or invisible above when dry, slightly visible or invisible below. Xylem of lateral veins tubular, the upper part sometimes interrupted; stomatal crypts none; hypodermis none except directly above and sometimes near the midrib; mucilage walls none; free stone cells present only in base of petiole; terminal sclereids columnar but often with small horizontal central bodies, often with more than one columnar arm. Flowers 1-8 in the leaf axils, 1 per peduncle; peduncles 2.0-4.0 mm long with 2 or 3 internodes, bearing 2-3 pairs of bracts, the upper 2 pairs at the peduncle apex, rarely a 4th pair at peduncle base; bracts 1.0-2.0 mm long, triangular to broadly ovate-triangular, sharply acute to abruptly acuminate or apiculate, minutely and irregularly fringed on the margins, separate or members of a pair fused at base, present at anthesis. Flowers fragrant. True pedicels 0-0.5 mm long; calyx including inferior ovary green, 3.9-5.0 mm long, obconic to slightly campanulate; free hypanthium ca 1.1 mm long; calyx lobes triangular to low-rounded and abruptly acute, 0.7-1.2 mm long, 1.2-1.8 mm wide, 1.1-1.6 mm long when measured from stamen attachment, the calyx splitting between the lobes at anthesis for a distance of 0-0.2 mm. Petals yellow, elliptic to rhombic-elliptic, narrowly acute at apex, 5.0-6.0 mm long, 2.0-3.5 mm wide. Filaments yellow, the antesepalous ones 4.0-5.5 mm long, the antepetalous ones 6.5-7.5 mm long; anthers yellow to orange, 2.9-4.5 mm long; sporangia 1.6-2.7 mm long, dehiscing by apical clefts; gland 0.3-0.6(-l.l) mm long, 1.8-2.6 mm from apex of anther when measured from center of gland; cauda 0.7-1.4 mm long. Ovary 2-locular; ovules axile, all at same level, 6-9 in all; style 13.0-14.0 mm long. Fruit yellow-orange, globose to depressed-globose, not grooved nor ridged, crowned by the remains of the calyx, abruptly narrowed at base to a short broad obconic stipe, ca 10-14 mm high excluding calyx and 12.0-13.5 mm thick when dry, estimated 11.5-17.0 mm high and 14-17 mm thick when fresh, the basal stipe 1.0-3.3 mm long. Seed 1, ellipsoid, 8.8-9.3 mm high, 9.9-11.7 mm wide, ca 9.5-10.2 mm thick, the hardened and slightly polished face which represents the outer face of the ovule narrow, 6.5-8.0 mm high, broadest above where it is 1.8-3.3 mm wide and roundish, abruptly narrowed below, the narrow part sometimes sunken in a groove leading to the micropyle which is sometimes raised in a little projection; rest of surface of seed rugulose.

  • Common Names

    Piritjalaipio, Camutim, daüieú-rana

  • Distribution

    Venezuela, south Amazonas and east-central Bolivar; Guyana; Surinam; Brazil, north Amazonas and west-central Pará. Moist often secondary forests usually near water, above or below flood level, mostly below 100 m elevation, up to ca 400 m in Bolivar, Venezuela. Soil often sandy. Reported growing in caatinga type of forest in east-central Amazonas, Brazil.

    Amazonas Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| Suriname South America| Amazonas Brazil South America| Pará Brazil South America| Brazil South America|