Calyptranthes pulchella DC.
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Authority
Maguire, Bassett & Wurdack, John J. 1958. The botany of the Guayana Highland--Part III. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 10: 1-156.
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Family
Myrtaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - A small tree, 5-12 m high, 4-8 cm in diameter, the inflorescence, young branchlets, vegetative buds, and lower leaf-surf aces more or less strigose with sessile dibrachiate rufous hairs; branchlets 2-winged, the wings arising just above the axil at one node, and terminating between the leaf-bases at the node above; leaves cuneate, obovate or broadly elliptic, mostly less than 5 cm long, usually rounded or very obtuse at the apex (sometimes acute but blunt-tipped, or broadly and shortly acuminate), acute or cuneate at the base, the margins decurrent on the stout channeled petiole 0.7-1 mm thick, 2-3 mm long; midvein flat or sulcate above, prominent beneath; lateral veins very slender and scarcely apparent, 8-12 pairs with several intermediates; marginal vein like the laterals, 0.5-1 mm from the margin; leaves dull in drying, paler beneath; inflorescence usually of slender paired 5- to 20-flowered panicles 5 cm long or less, the flowers sessile along the branchlets and at the tips, or the lower at the tips of short lateral branehlets; bracts and bracteoles deciduous; petals none.
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Discussion
The type of this species came from Minas Gerais, Brazil, where it was collected by Martius. Berg in 1859 described var. parviflora, based on a collection by Spruce from the Rio Vaupes. More recently Amshoff has tentatively referred to this species two collections made by Maguire in Suriname (Fl. Surin. 3: 63. 1951), and McVaugh has identified certain collections from Amazonian Peru as belonging to the same species (Fieldiana Bot. 29: 178. 1956). All the above are alike in having winged branchlets, small obtuse cuneate or obovate leaves, and a short, slender, and few-flowered inflorescence. All are pubescent at least to a very slight degree with short reddish dibrachiate hairs. It is by no means certain, however, that all these plants are conspeeific, and more collections for study are needed.