Myrcia rufipila McVaugh

  • Authority

    Maguire, Bassett. 1969. The botany of the Guayana Highland-part VIII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 18: 1-290.

  • Family

    Myrtaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Myrcia rufipila McVaugh

  • Description

    Species Description - The following collections apparently represent one and the same species of sect .Armeriela, a species very like Myrcia rufipila but differing in the fine pale soft hairs that cover the young herbage and inflorescence. The pubescence, not bright rufous as in M . rufipila, consists of colorless or very pale reddish, basifixed, glistening, collapsible hairs of variable lengths, up to 0.5-0.7 mm long; the hypanthium even to the unaided eye is whitened by the dense covering of these hairs; the 5 broad, flat rounded calyx-lobes are rather densely and finely tomentulose on the inner surface, and partly deciduous at anthesis; the leaves resemble those of M . rufipila; they are elliptic-ovate, acuminate, up to 16 cm long, 7.5 cm wide; the midvein is channeled or nearly flat above; the lateral veins are inconspicuous; the inflorescences are 10-12 cm long or more, many-flowered, the bracts deciduous before anthesis; the hypanthium is prolonged and cuplike, glabrous within, the disk 1.5 mm wide or a little more, the style 5 mm long, the ovary bilocular with 2 ascending ovules in each locule.

  • Discussion

    Aulomyrcia divaricata Berg, Linnaea 27: 58. 1855, non Myrcia divaricata (Lam.) D C , 1828.

    For description see Amshoff (Fl. Suriname 3(2): 74. 1951). This species is superficiahy like Myrcia pyrifolia (see discussion under that species) and M . subobliqua. The midvein in M . rufipila is usually definitely channeled or biconvex on the upper surface, not rather smoothly convex as in the other species. From M. pyrifolia, M . rufipila may also be distinguished by the abundant coppery-red (not gray), partly erect and bristly short hairs that cover the young herbage, the panicles and the buds; and by the pubescent inner surfaces of the calyx-lobes. From M. subobliqua, M . rufipila may be distinguished by the more pubescent buds and hypanthium and the larger, more unequal calyx-lobes. From M . cuprea it is distinguished even in sterile or overmature specimens by the relatively scanty and partly erect pubescence (not appressed and silky and covering the whole leaf-surface and the whole bud).

    As this is evidently a Brazilian species, not primarily of the Guianas or even of trans-Amazonian Brazil, it is probable that it has already been described in the Flora Brasiliensis or elsewhere, and it is mentioned here for comparison only. The plant treated here as Myrcia rufipila is a somewhat variable and puzzhng species, and future studies may show that in a broadly conceived taxonomic treatment it should include these pale-pubescent forms as well a.s those with more reddish hairs:

    BRAZIL. Amapa: Coastal region, road to Amapa, km 48, 7 Jul 1962, Pires & Cavalcante 51989 ( M I C H ) ; Rio Oiapoque, 2.5 k m S of mouth of Riv. Yaroupi, E of Mata Indios, 24 Sep 1960, Irwin et al 48471 ( M I C H ) . Para: Without definite locahty, Prentiss in 1870 (fl) ( N Y ) ; Fordlandia, Tapajos River region, 7 Sep 1931 (bud), Krukoff 1041 ( N Y ).