Psidium sartorianum (O.Berg) Nied.
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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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Discussion
Mitranthes sartoriana Berg, Linnaea 29: 248. 1858.
Mitropsidium oblanceolatum Burret, T^iotizhl. Berlin 15: 487. 1941.
Mitropsidium pittieri Burret,'^otizhl. Berlin 15: 488. 1941.
IPsidium quinquedentatum Amsh., Rec. Trav. Bot. Neerl. 39: 164. 1942.
Psidium minutiflorum Amsh., Rec. Trav. Bot. Neerl. 42: 19. 1950.
For description and additional synonymy relative to plants of northern South America, see Fieldiana Bot. 24(7) [Fl. Guatemala]: 401, 1963. As explained briefly in the Flora of Guatemala, and at more length in an earlier article (Fieldiana Bot. 29: 525-529. 1963), the complex of species that includes Psidium sartorianum is characterized by having leaves and flowers small for the genus, herbage and branchlets hispidulous but the buds glabrous, leaves thin and often with many conspicuous glands, the midvein flat or slightly convex. The plants are often large forest trees. Representatives of the complex are found on both coasts of Mexico, in Yucatan and Cuba, Central America, and from northern Colombia and Venezuela to eastern Brazil. Several different species in the complex have been distinguished, mostly on the basis of differences in the unopened calyx. In the type of Mitranthes sartoriana the calyx is closed and calyptrate as it is in almost all Mexican and Central American specimens. In P molinae Amsh., of Honduras, and in P quinquedentatum and P minutiflorum, however, the calyx is provided with 4 or 5 short lobes. The taxonomic significance of this feature of the calyx is not fully understood, but in some individuals the calyx may be lobed, or open irregularly, in species that normally have a closed calyptrate calyx, and I suspect that study of the populations of these plants in nature would show that no more than one species, or perhaps two or more geographically localized subspecies, make up the complex.
It is probable that Psidium galapageium Hook. f. (Trans. Linn. Soc. London 20: 224. 1847), is the correct name for the complex that has generally passed under the name of P sartorianum. The type, collected by Scouler on the Galapagos Islands, and now at Kew, is an ample leafy specimen with flower-buds. I cannot distinguish it from mainland specimens of P. sartorianum. It seems inadvisable to take up the earlier epithet, however, until the taxonomy of the entire complex is better known. I. M . Johnston (Proc. Cahf. Acad. Sci. IV. 20: 80. 1931) took up the name P galapageium for a plant of Socorro Island having "brownish pilose" leaves and twigs, and "slightly free sepal tips." H e at the same time (p. 81) proposed a new species from Socorro Island, P. socorrense, this said to differ from P galapageium chiefly in being less densely pubescent, and in having the "sepal tips . united to form a terminal mucronate tip for the unopened bud." Miranda, in an account of the vegetation of Socorro Island (La Isla Socorro. Monog. Inst. Geofis. Univ. Nac. Auton. Mex. 2: 129-152. 1960) considered the dominant arborescent Psidium on the island—which in deep soils forms a tree 8-12 m high—to be P. galapageium. Neither P. galapageium nor the supposed P. socorrense is very different from the common and widespread P. sartorianum.
The name Psidium minutiflorum was proposed by Amshoff as a substitute for P. ciliatum in the sense of Berg (Linnaea 27: 353. 1856), not P. ciliatum Benth. (1840). As Amshoff designated no type, and as Berg cited five different numbers, all representing collections made by the Schomburgks in British Guiana, it is necessary to choose a lectotype from among these numbers. Amshoff cited two of the three gatherings seen by Berg, viz. nos. 388 (cited by Berg as 322), and 952. Berg stated that he saw the various collections "in hb. Berol. et Vindob."; as it may be assumed that the Berlin specimens have been destroyed, a lectotype should be chosen from among the sheets annotated by Berg and now at Vienna. These are nos. 604 (marked "Mus. Berol."), 388, and 952. Of these no. 952 is designated lectotype, as the number was cited by both Berg and Amshoff, specimens under that number have been rather widely distributed, and a sheet at G has been photographed (Field Mus. neg. 23491). Ah the specimens of no. 952 are superficially like P. sartorianum, but the calyx in bud is provided with short, densely ciliate lobes, and in anthesis opens by deep longitudinal fissures. The corolla even in the young bud is exposed, but the globe of the petals is shorter than or about as long as the calyx-lobes until just before anthesis.
The other species proposed by Amshoff, Psidium quinquedentatum, is still known from the type only. This is a plant from Suriname, Rombouts 329, which I saw at Utrecht in 1965. The specimen consists of a large branch about 20 cm long and 8 m m in diam, with about 20 slender sucker-shoots, each about 10-15 cm long and 1-2 m m in diam, arising from it. These slender, vigorous branchlets, some of which are in 3's rather than opposite, are densely yehowish-pubescent as emphasized by Amshoff, and the leaves are similarly but less densely pubescent. In the kind and distribution of pubescence, and in other respects, this specimen suggests an abnormally stimulated individual of what has been called P minutiflorum, and I suspect the two are synonymous.
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Distribution
Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Guyana South America|