Mouriri huberi Cogn.

Authority

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

Family

Melastomataceae

Scientific Name

Mouriri huberi Cogn.

Type

Type. J. Huber 169 (lectotype, BR; isotypes, BM, F-frag., G, MG, P, RB, US). Brazil: Pará: Belém, Marco da Legua. Small tree, flowers white tinted with rose. June, 1896.

Description

Description - Tree to 30 m high with a trunk to 50 cm in diam, glabrous except for the inflorescence; young twigs terete or with 4 low rounded ridges; bark of trunk brown to greyish-brown, shallowly fissured; wood very hard. Petioles 0-8.0 mm long; blades coriaceous, dark lustrous green above, paler below, 5.8-15.0 cm long, 3.0-6.7 cm wide, elliptic to elliptic-oblong or slightly ovate-elliptic or these of narrow proportions, abruptly acute or abruptly acuminate at the apex, acute at base with an included angle of 60125°, often attenuate on the petiole, sometimes attentuate to its base; midrib grooved above, prominent below, rounded near the petiole, becoming 2-angled or very narrowly 2-winged ca 1/8-¼ of the way to the tip; lateral nerves not visible above or below when fresh, sometimes obscurely visible when dry. Midrib xylem tubular with the upper side usually depressed; stomatal crypts a highly modified Type II, averaging in a leaf ca 26-65 µ in diam, 46-80 µ high, 34-127 per sq mm (extremes 15-90 µ diam, 42-85 µ high, 21-165 per sq mm); upper epidermis varying with the thickness of the leaf, in the thinnest ones the epidermis being one cell thick more often than two in the same leaf, in thicker leaves being mostly two cells thick and rarely three; mucilaginous walls usually present in the cells contacting the palisade; hypodermis none; free stone cells present only near base of midvein or petiole in the cortex, the pith moderately to heavily sclerified to the tip; terminal sclereids columnar, vertical or somewhat slanting, usually branching at the upper epidermis and often at the lower, seldom with a small central body. Inflorescences at leafless nodes of twigs up to 5.5 mm thick or sometimes axillary, 1-4 per side, each 1-25-flowered, 4.0-20.0 mm long to base of farthest pedicel measured along the axes and with 1-5 internodes in that length; bracts 1.5-4.0 mm long, ovate to triangular, acute or slightly blunted, deciduous before anthesis. Pedicels and at least the upper internodes of the inflorescence minutely puberulent. True pedicels 0.5-4.3 mm long; flower buds pale creamy green; calyx pale green or greenish-white to pink or light purple; calyx including inferior ovary 4.5-6.0 mm long dry, to ca 6.5 mm long fresh, obconic to slightly campanulate; calyx lobes fused to the apex of the flower in bud, enclosing the other parts, splitting apart regularly at anthesis, each then ovate-triangular and acute, 3.04.0 mm long, 2.0-2.8 mm wide; free hypanthium 1.6-2.4 mm long; calyx circumscissile in the free hypanthium 1/2-2/3 of the way from the hypanthium base to the stamen attachment after anthesis. Petals white to rose or yellow, broadly elliptic and acute, sessile, 3.1-3.7 mm long, 2.6-3.2 mm wide. Filaments white, the antesepalous ones 3.04.5 mm long, the antepetalous ones 4.0-6.0 mm long; anthers white to yellow or purplish, 2.6-3.6 mm long; sporangia 2.2-2.6 mm long, dehiscing by apical slits; gland 0.9-1.5 mm long, 1.8-2.3 mm from apex of anther when measured from center of gland; cauda 0.8-1.4 mm long. Ovary 5-locular; placentae basal in each locule, the ovules borne on all sides of a short basal column, 3 per placenta; style 5.0-7.0 mm long. Fruits edible, yellow, ellipsoid to obovoid, 20.0-30.0 mm long and 18.0-28.0 mm in diam when dry, ca 23-37 mm long and 20-34 mm in diam when fresh, with a round terminal calyx scar 9-18 mm in diam; outer layer leathery, 2.0-3.0 mm thick, the pulp sweet with pleasant taste. Seeds 4 or 5, those examined dark brown, polished, narrowly and irregularly ellipsoid and with a constriction ca 1/3 of the way above the base, 14.4-16.7 mm long, 6.1-8.6 mm wide, 6.0-8.0 mm thick; hilum basal but angled upward, irregularly elliptic, 3.44.0 mm long, 2.0-3.2 mm wide.

Discussion

This species is the most widespread of the three in this distinctive section. The distinguishing features of M. huberi are found in many parts, in particular the leaf shape and size, anther sporangia, gland and cauda length, and fruit and seed shape and size. The Peruvian locality is far from the rest of the known range of the species, and since that collection is sterile and identification was made only from leaf form and anatomy, plants of that area may prove to differ from the others when better known.

Common Names

Guarataro, guayaba paujcera , Mamuriballi, Topi, bois de fleche, Bois de fer, Lanca caspi, Puça, Mamãozinho, Tracuáuba

Distribution

Venezuela in Bolivar and Delta Amacuro; Guyana; French Guiana; east-central Peru; and Brazil in the Manaus region of Amazonas and scattered through Pará near the Amazon, in the Belém area, and east of Belém. Moist primary or secondary forests above flood level on clay or sand soil at elevations up to 380 m.

Bolívar Venezuela South America| Delta Amacuro Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| French Guiana South America| Loreto Peru South America| Amazonas Brazil South America| Pará Brazil South America|