Mouriri spathulata Griseb.
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Authority
Morley, Thomas. 1976. Melastomataceae tribe Memecyleae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 15: 1-295. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Melastomataceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Small tree to ca 10 m high with a trunk to 10 cm in diam at breast height, glabrous except for the inflorescence; older individuals commonly with a strong basal offshoot, sometimes becoming somewhat shrubby, often sprouting from the stump; young twigs terete to narrowly 4-winged; bark thin, light to dark brown, finely checked vertically with fewer cross-checks. Young leaves when fresh a smooth glossy green above, pale green and scarcely shining below; older leaves less shiny above and dull below; dried leaves sometimes shiny above, dull below, the surfaces smooth or punctulate; fresh leaves without aromatic odor when crushed, faintly speckled when held to the light. Petioles 1.0-7.0 mm long; blades 3.0-10.5 cm long, 1.5-5.5 cm wide, coriaceous, often thick, mostly ovate to elliptic or rhombic-elliptic to obovate, rarely lanceolate, the margin often revolute, the apex acute to rounded to emarginate, rarely narrowly acute, sometimes mucronulate, the base cuneate, attenuate to the petiole; midrib flat to slightly rounded above, usually rounded below, sometimes rectangular at the middle, very rarely with tiny incomplete wings at the angles; lateral nerves visible above and below in very large leaves, both fresh and dried, usually visible only above. Midrib xylem tubular; stomatal crypts usually present, usually Type III but when very small Type II, sometimes irregularly distributed, very rarely absent, when regularly present averaging 25-65 µ diam, 11-27 µ high, 55-170 per sq mm (extremes 30-65 µ diam, 10-27 µ high, 30-170 per sq mm); upper epidermis predominantly one cell thick, rarely with up to 40% of the cells doubled in the same leaf, mucilaginous walls absent; hypodermis present; free stone cells present only in base of petiole; terminal sclereids stellate, the central bodies typically elongate, 2-4 times as long as wide, often branching, sometimes isodiametric, with several arms of medium length, or sometimes the sclereid columnar. Inflorescences 1-5 per leaf axil, each 1-9-flowered, 2.0-15.6 mm long to base of farthest pedicel measured along the axes and with 1-3 internodes in that length; bracts in pairs at the joints, rarely one also at the ovary base, triangular or ovate-triangular, acute to acuminate, ca 1.0 mm long, deciduous by anthesis. True pedicels 1.5-6.0(-8.6) mm long, they and the axes of the inflorescence minutely puberulent or glabrous; calyx including inferior ovary glabrous, 3.4-5.1 mm long when dry, 3.7-5.6 mm when fresh, campanulate to cup-shaped or approaching turbinate; ratio of length of calyx to width of calyx lobe 1.5-3.1; free hypanthium 1.5-1.8 mm long; calyx lobes before anthesis 0.6-1.6 mm long, 1.5-4.0 mm wide, 0.9-2.3 mm long from the stamen attachment, truncate with rounded shoulders to broadly rounded to low-triangular to rarely minutely apiculate, the shoulders sometimes expanded laterally to make the lobes very shortly and broadly ovate, the margins minutely fringed with short hairs; fusion distance of adjacent lobes above the stamen attachment 0.4-0.9 mm, splitting distance at anthesis 0-0.5 mm. Petals yellow, white, pink, or violet, 5.0-8.0 mm long, 4.0-7.0 mm wide, broadly ovate, often crinkled below, the base rounded to truncate or slightly cordate to a short claw 0.8-1.0 mm long and 1.0 mm wide, the apex acute. Filaments white, the antesepalous ones 3.2-6.0 mm long, the antepetalous ones 5.0-8.5 mm long; anthers 1.8-2.5 mm long; sporangia yellow, dehiscing by apical pores, 1.4-2.1 mm long; gland 0.3-0.8 mm long, 1.3-1.8 mm from apex of anther when measured from center of gland; cauda 0.5-0.8 mm long; stamens and style often slightly zygomorphic, curved together, most stamens oriented with the gland upward. Ovary (2-)3-5-locular; ovules axile-basal, produced only outwardly from each placenta, 9-18 in all; style 10.0-13.0 mm long. Fruits yellow to red-orange, thinly fleshed, with slightly sweet, insipid flavor, crowned with the persistent calyx, 1-4-seeded, subglobose when 1-seeded, then 15.0-21.0 mm in diam and often with the calyx located through differential development as little as 90° from the pedicel, lobed according to the number of seeds when seeds more than 1, up to 30 mm in diameter with 2-4 seeds, their dry measurements 3-4 mm less. Seeds brown, smooth, 11.5-13.3 mm long, 11.3-12.0 mm wide, 9.1-10.7 mm thick, subglobose, flattened on the contact faces when seeds more than 1, with a roundish basal hilum ca 4.2-5.7 mm in diam.
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Distribution
The eastern tip of Cuba and the northern half of Hispaniola.
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