Eugenia florida DC.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Myrtaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Eugenia florida DC.

  • Description

    Distribution and Ecology - VENEZUELA. Lower Orinoco, Manoa, Apr 1896 (imm fr), Rusby & Squires248 (F, M I C H , NY) . Bolivar: Temblador, Medio Caura, elev 100 m, 25 Mar 1939(bud), Williams 11598 (F); Rio Uiri-yuk, El Foco, 29 Aug 1962 (imm fr), Maguireet al 53501 ( M I C H ) ; en el cerro hacia Sierra Maigualida y Sierra Cervatana, lat.6° N , long. 65° W , elev 300-500 m, 26 Apr 1966 (fl), Steyermark & Gibson 95781( M I C H ) . Amazonas: Tamatama, Upper Orinoco, elev 121 m, 4 M a y 1942 (fl),Williams 15155 {¥), 8 M a y 1942 (imm fr), Williams 15258 (F); Esmeralda, upperOrinoco, elev 143 m, 13 M a y 1942 (fr), Williams 15315 (F). SURINAME. Forestreserve, Watramiri, 10 Oct 1928 (fl), B. W . 4028 (NY) ; Lucie Rivier near confluenceof Oost Rivier, elev 225 m, 4-11 Sep 1963 (bud, fl, fr), Irwin et al 55354,55437, 55606 (ah M I C H ) ; Bakhuis Mts. along left Coppename River, 3 Feb 1965(fl), Florschiitz & Maas 2746 (MICH, U ) ; Suriname River, Jodensavanne-MapaneCreek area, 6 IVIay 1953 (sterile), Lindeman 3833 (MICH, U). BRITISH GUIANA.Barima River opposite Anabisi Creek, 8/4/1945 (fr). Forest Dept. 5197 (NY).

  • Discussion

    Eugenia atropunctata Steud., Flora 26: 762. 1843.

    Eugenia racemifera Sagot, Ann. Sci. Nat. VI. 20: 195, 1885, non Berg 1857

    For a description and additional synonymy see Field Mus. Publ. Bot. 13(4): 700. 1958; for a discussion of the taxonomy of Eugenia florida, sens, lat., see Fieldiana Bot. 29: 446-448, 1963. In E. florida the inflorescence is a nearly glabrous raceme with 4-5(-10) pairs of flowers on pedicels usuahy 3-4 m m long. Plants of this species-complex are also readily recognized by the presence of small dibrachiate hairs on the young herbage and inflorescence (a few such hairs usually persisting on the lower leaf-surface), by the glabrous hypanthium and glabrous membranous bracteoles and calyx-lobes; by the sunken midvein which is hispidulous above in the furrow; and by the ascending lateral veins which are usually delicately "engraved" on the upper surface.

    In South America Eugenia florida is widely distributed in the lowlands of the Amazon and Orinoco basins and as far northwest as Panama, and from the Guianas to Para, Ceara, Pernambuco and Minas Gerais. The complex is represented in North America and the Lesser Antilles by the very closely similar E. oerstedeana Berg and its supposed derivative, E. conzattii Standi. It seems to be absent or nearly so from the Guayana Highland proper; it has been collected but seldom along the Orinoco and its tributaries. The type was collected by Martius, presumably on the upper Amazon. The type of E. atropunctata, which I saw at Paris in 1954, is from an unknown locality in Suriname.

    Amshoff (Fl. Suriname 3(2): 113. 1951) separates Eugenia florida ["atropunctata"] from E. racemifera Sagot, by the occurrence of dibrachiate hairs in the former and simple hairs in the latter. Some of the specimens cited in the Flora of Suriname under E. racemifera, however, have at least a few dibrachiate hairs, e.g., B. W 4028, and I believe this and the other cited specimens as well are referable to E. florida. The lectotype of E. racemifera, a flowering specimen which I saw at P, in 1965, collected somewhere in French Guiana by Melinon, seems to m e also to represent E. florida. Two fruiting specimens in the same herbarium, also collected by Melinon and studied by Sagot, are the same species.

    Perhaps likely to be confused with Eugenia florida is E. longiracemosa (Kiaersk. Enum. Myrt. Bras. 149. 1893), a species based on Glaziou 13898, from some unspecified locality in Brazil (cf Field Mus. neg. 20959). In the following specimens, which I take to represent E. longiracemosa, the pedicels are mostly 7-15 m m long, the midvein concave and sparingly pale-strigose (not deeply sunken and minutely hispidulous), and the plants are essentially glabrous, the few hairs on the branchlets and racemes apparently ah basifixed.

    BRAZIL. Amazonas: Ilha do Marapata, Rodrigues 2839 {INPA 9383) (MICH; det. Legrand); Manaus, Igarape de Cachoeira Grande, 18 Apr 1937 (fl), Ducke 456 (NY).

    closely related plant is Eugenia calva McVaugh (Fieldiana Bot. 29: 205. 1956), described from the lowlands of Amazonian Peru. In this the inflorescence is closely appressed-pubescent, the calyx-lobes and bracteoles are fimbriate-ciliate; dibrachiate hairs are rare or absent from the racemes and leaves. T w o collections from the same locality on the upper Orinoco seem to be referable to E. calva; they would key out to E. florida in the present paper. A revision of the whole E. florida complex is to be desired.

    V E N E Z U E L A . Amazonas: Puerto Ayacucho, elev 95 m, 27 M a y 1940 (fr), WilUams 13135 {¥); Puerto Ayacucho, 22 Mar 1950 (fl), Curran 1793 p. p. ( N Y ) . In the interior of British Guiana and Suriname there is what seems to be a recognizable local population, allied to Eugenia florida and perhaps not separable from it, but the leaves often narrow (up to 3 times as long as wide) and the lateral veins mostly not strongly ascending but passing directly into a marginal vein; the furrow of the midvein on the upper leaf-surface glabrous; the branchlets, racemes and young herbage appressed-pubescent with lustrous, grayish white mostly or wholly basifixed hairs; the pedicels 3-7 m m long, stout; and the bracteoles, hypanthium and calyxlobes sometimes sparingly strigose. In aspect and in most characteristics, including those of the inflorescence, calyx, and fruit, these specimens suggest E. florida. The ovules vary from 2-3 in each locule (in Forest Dept. 6958) to 7-8 per locule (in Irwin et al 55908). Some of these plants have been distributed under the name of E. polystachyoides Amsh., but that seems to be quite a different species (see list of Doubtful Species). Perhaps the fohowing specimens represent an independent species allied to E. tafelbergica Amsh. and E. luciae Amsh., but I cannot be sure from the materials now available:

    BRITISH G U I A N A . Oko Creek mouth on the Cuyuni River, 6 Jun 1952 (fl). Forest Dept. 6958 ( M I C H ) ; falls of the Mazaruni River, 28 Oct 1952 (fl), Forest Dept. 7125 (MICH). S U R I N A M E . Zuid Rivier, above confluence with Lucie Rivier, elev 220-250 m, 23 Aug 1963 (imm fr), h-win ct al 55206 ( M I C H ) , 20 Sep 1963 (fr), Irwin et al 55908 ( M I C H ).

  • Distribution

    V E N E Z U E L A . Lower Orinoco, Manoa, Apr 1896 (imm fr), Rusby & Squires248 (F, M I C H , N Y ) . Bolivar: Temblador, Medio Caura, elev 100 m, 25 Mar 1939(bud), Williams 11598 (F); Rio Uiri-yuk, El Foco, 29 Aug 1962 (imm fr), Maguireet al 53501 ( M I C H ) ; en el cerro hacia Sierra Maigualida y Sierra Cervatana, lat.6° N , long. 65° W , elev 300-500 m, 26 Apr 1966 (fl), Steyermark & Gibson 95781( M I C H ) . Amazonas: Tamatama, Upper Orinoco, elev 121 m, 4 M a y 1942 (fl),Williams 15155 {

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