Calycolpus calophyllus (Kunth) O.Berg
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Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1969. The botany of the Guayana Highland-part VIII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 18: 1-290.
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Family
Myrtaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - For a brief description see Berg (Mart. Fl. Bras. 14(1): 412. 1857). According to Spruce's fleld notes as quoted by Riley, the flowers are pink outside and white within. The type came from Maypures on the upper Orinoco; it is a specimen collected by Humboldt and Bonpland (cf Field Mus. neg. 36880), which I saw at Paris in 1965; it is clearly the species considered here, which is readily separable from ah other members of the genus by the short, pubescent lobes and by its geographical range.
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Discussion
The two collections of this species differ slightly in density of pubescence and in the length of the hairs; in the Tillett collection the hairs on the lower surfaces of the young leaves are 0.2-0.3 m m long, and the pubescence of the flowers in general is closely appressed, with most of the hairs less than 0.5 m m long; in the other collection most of the hairs are longer, and more spreading, making the flowers appear almost shaggy.
In the Tillett collection some of the flowers are produced on rapidly growing new leafy shoots; these flowers are mostly solitary, long-pedicellate, with subfoliaceous bracteoles; I take it, however, that the flowers in this species are usually produced in short leafless axillary racemes, and this has influenced m y decision to refer the species to Calycolpus rather than to Psidium. The ovary is 3-locular, as usual in Psidium, whereas it is usually 4- or 5-locular in Calycolpus. In the structure of the calyx, however, the plant resembles Calycolpus rather than Psidium; the linguaeform lobes with dilated cochleate bases are well known in Calycolpus but not as far as I am aware in Psidium. As the calyx-lobes spread at anthesis, fissures as much as 1-2 m m deep may develop between individual pairs of lobes, but this seems to be the exception rather than the rule, the margin of the calyx usuahy remaining unbroken between the lobes; similar fissures sometimes occur in other species of Calycolpus. In the coriaceous fleshy leaves with inconspicuous veins this species is much more like the other species of Calycolpus than like any Psidium in our area. The aspect, that intangible taxonomic attribute, is exactly that of a pubescent Calycolpus.