Eugenia eurycheila O.Berg
-
Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1969. The botany of the Guayana Highland-part VIII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 18: 1-290.
-
Family
Myrtaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Discussion
Eugenia eurycheila a grandifolia Berg, Linnaea 27: 214. 1856.
Eugenia eurycheila /3 parvifolia Berg, Linnaea 27: 214. 1856
Apparently confined to the interior of British Guiana, this plant is known from the original collections seen by Berg at Berlin; from collections of A. C. Smith, all cited by Amshoff in Buh. Torrey Club 75: 534, 535. 1948 [nos. 2213, 2355, 3135, 3379]; and from the following recent collection made near the type-locality:
BRITISH G U I A N A . Sand Creek, Rupununi River, Forest Dept. 5645 ( N Y ). The species is readily recognized by the broad, blunt, thick and obscurely veined leaves 5-7 cm long or less, the pale brown color of the under-surfaces of dried leaves, the fasciculate, slender-pedicellate flowers and the pale soft pubescence of the inflorescence. The fruit, not described by Berg, is "rich brown" (according to data on Smith 3379, N Y ) , globose or oblate, about 1 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide. Berg based Eugenia eurycheila on two collections from British Guiana that he saw at Berhn; it is assumed that these have been destroyed. I have not located any duplicates of these, nor any specimens named by Berg. The original specimens were cited as "ad ripam fluvii Rupununi (Rich. Schomb., coh. no. 1295)" [i.e., a grandifolia], and without definite locahty, "Rich. Schomb., coll. no. C " [i.e., fi parvifolia].
There is an unnumbered Schomburgk specimen at W , ex hb. Berol., that presumably represents authentic material of E. eurycheila, and a similar specimen, received from Berlin in 1859, at Kew. It is conceivable that a specimen named by Berg, acceptable as a lectotype, m a y yet be found.