Bellucia grossularioides (L.) Triana

Authority

Renner, Susanne S. 1989. Systematic studies in the Melastomataceae Bellucia, Loreya and Macairea. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 50: 1-112.

Family

Melastomataceae

Scientific Name

Bellucia grossularioides (L.) Triana

Description

Species Description - Tree, 3-8-25(-30) x 0.10-0.30(-1) m; bark gray or brown, smooth with fine, shallow, vertical fissures. Leaves 15-35 x 10-20 cm, broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, obtuse to rounded at base, with the inner pair of lateral primaries departing ca. 1 cm above the base, glabrous; petioles to 6 cm long. Cymes congested, usually 2-flowered, in the axils of existing leaves, glabrous; pedicels 10-24 mm long. Flowers (6-)7-8(-9)-merous; hypanthium 8-10 mm long, glabrous; calyx a calyptra, dehiscing in an irregular semicircle, drying as a hyaline membrane, often persistent on the limb after anthesis; petals (20-) 22-24 mm long, white, sometimes pink-flushed outside; filaments 7-9 mm long, thecae 5-6 mm long; ovary (12-)13-14(-15)-locular; style ca. 20 mm long. Fruit a greenish-yellow, subglabrous berry. Seeds ovoid, ca. 0.9 mm long, testa irregularly tuberculate and with shallow grooves.

Discussion

Melastoma grossularioides Linnaeus, Sp. pl. 390.1753, and Sp. pl. ed. 2. 558. 1762-1763, where Linnaeus removed the Plumier element. Lectotype here designated: Plukenet, Phytographia 3, pl. 249, fig. 4. 1692.

Blakea quinquenervia Aublet, Hist. pl. Guiane 1: 525, pl. 210. 1775; Bellucia quinquenervia (Aublet) Karsten, Linnaea 30: 159. Post Apr 1859; Blakea triplinervia L. f, Suppl. 246. 1782, nomen illeg.; Webera quinquenervia Gmelin, Syst. nat. 2(1): 820. Late 1791; Bellucia nervosa Rafinesque, Sylva tellur. 93. 1838, nomen illeg. Bellucia aubletii Naudin, Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. Ill, 16: 102. 1850c, nomen illeg. Type: French Guiana. Nr. Aroura, Aublet s.n. (holotype: BM!; isotype: LINN-SM, fide Howard, 1983).

Blakea macrophylla D. Don, Mem. Wemerian Nat. Hist. Soc. 4: 326. 1823; Bellucia macrophylla (D. Don) Triana, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 28: 142. 1871. Type: Mexico. Pavon s.n. (holotype: BM).

Blakea macrophylla D. Don is based on a Sesse and Moçiño collection from Mexico, which was sold to Lambert whose assistant, David Don, described it as a new species. I have not seen the type specimen, but John J. Wurdack (pers. comm.) saw it at BM in 1975; at the time, he did not make notes on the structure ofthe calyx, which would permit placement of the specimen in either B. grossularioides (with a calyptrate calyx) or B. pentamera (with triangular sepals). The latter is the only other species oi Bellucia occurring in Mexico. Ofthe sketches Sesse and Mogiho had drawn for the plates of their Flora Mexicana (ined.) from living specimens in the field (McVaugh, 1982), one clearly shows a 7-merous flower oi B. grossularioides with the typical, irregularly split, calyptrate calyx. A slide of this sketch (sketch no. 1973, fig. 75.II in the Tomer Collection) was kindly made available to me by the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. The accompanying Spanish text states "... flores de dos en dos en las axilas, y en los ramos, las divisiones del calix blanquecinas." This refers to the typically geminate axillary flowers of B. grossularioides and probably to the irregularly splitting calyptra, the remnant of which often persists as a shrivelled pale or hyaline membrane.

Apatitia blakeoides Desvaux in Hamil., Prodr. pl. Ind. occid. 42. 1825. Type: French Guiana. Perrottet s.n. (lectotype here designated: P!).

Bellucia hostmannii Naudin, Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. Ill,16: 104. 1850c. Type: Surinam. Hostmann 756a (holotype: P!; isotypes: C!, G!, G-BOISS!, GOET!, MO!, NY frag.!, U!, W!).

Bellucia superba Naudin, Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. Ill, 16: 104. 1850c. Type: Mexico. Tabasco: El Azufre nr. Teapa, Linden s.n. (holotype: P!; isotype: G!).

Bellucia brasiliensis Naudin, Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. Ill, 16: 104. 1850c. Type: Brazil. Amazonas: Ferreira s.n. (holotype: P!; isotype: P!).

Bellucia multiflora Karsten, Linnaea 30: 158. Post Apr 1859. Type: Colombia. Meta: Nr. Villavicencio, Karsten s.n. (holotype: LE: isotypes: F!, NY!, P!, W!).

Bellucia circumscissa Spruce ex Cogniaux in Martius, n. bras. 14(4): 515, pl. 108. 1888. Type: Brazil. Amazonas: Sao Gabriel, Spruce 2162 (holotype: BR frag.!; isotypes: BM!, C!, N Y photo neg. 21161!, G!, G-BOISS!, GOET!, M!, NY!, P!, US!, W!).

Local names: capirote manzano (Nicaragua), neflier du Mexique (Guadeloupe), pomarrosa de monte, guayaba de pava, coronillo, manzanilla, takari (Ucbco), tuno, we-kee-to (Barasana), tsedjoo-ka (Punare), wach-kee-to (Tukano, all Colombia), puma rosa, pomarrosa, guayabo de danta, guaba de danta, cara-re-yek (Pemon, all Venezuela), mess apple, chigonit, chiganet, itara (Arawak, all Guyana), nispa, mespelboom (Surinam), bois messe (Creole), melier, mele (French Guiana), araça de anta, goiaba de anta, papa terra branca, papa terra vermelha, jambo do mato, jambo da selva (all Brazil), huicama (Chacobo, Bolivia).

The scraped bark is rubbed on paddles, wooden implements, ropes, or drinking vessels to give a waterproof surface. Wood so treated has the appearance of being varnished. It has been suggested that jam could be made from the fruits (label data).

Bellucia grossularioides is illustrated in Seemann (1854), Mee (1968, pl. 7), and Cogniaux (1888, pl. 108, as jB. circumscissa).

The species has been introduced in Guadeloupe (Fournet, 1978) and is sometimes cultivated in Martinique (fide Duss 1167). According to Grisebach (1864), Bellucia grossularioides has become naturalized in various southem Caribbean islands; however, I have seen no specimens other than from Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Near Manaus, in central Amazonia, Bellucia grossularioides hybridizes with B. dichotoma. I have collected putative hybrids along roadsides (Renner 949, 957, 965, 969) where they grow as vigorous, fertile trees. Pollen from these trees stains heavily in cotton blue/lactophenol and thus seems viable. In the size of the flowers and the number of petals, stamens, and ovary locules the putative hybrids are intermediate between the parents. For example, on one tree (Renner 957), I counted three flowers with 13 stamens, 12 with 14, four with 15, three with 16, and one with 18. Typically, B. dichotoma has 12 stamens and B. grossularioides 16. In the position ofthe cymes, the hybrids tend to resemble either the one parent or the other; in Renner 965 the cymes were predominantly axillary, in Renner 949 and 969 they developed mostly on the old wood. Depending on the position of the inflorescences, they are branched (on the old wood) or unbranched (in leaf axils).

Distribution

Distribution and ecology (Fig. 10): Bellucia grossularioides is widespread in primary and secondary forest in Central America and northem South America. It grows on non-inundated soil, but also along river banks and in open, marshy places; from sea level to 850 m.a

Central America| South America|