Comarostaphylis spinulosa (M.Martens & Galeotti) Diggs

Description

Description: Low, mat-forming, or upright, often densely branched shrubs (or small trees?) to 4(-6?) m tall; bark peeling and flaking, sometimes furrowed, gray to orange-gray; young twigs sometimes red, tomentulose to glandular hirsute, rarely nearly glabrate. Leaves coriaceous to slightly so, elliptic to ovate or obovate, plane, 2-7.4 x 0.8-3.7 mm, basally cuneate, apically obtuse to acute, marginally serrate to serrulate, rarely subentire, upper surface glabrate or with scattered glandular or eglandular trichomes, lower surface densely to sparsely ferruginously tomentulose or with dense white to ferruginous tomentum, rarely glabrate, midrib with eglandular or glandular trichomes; petioles 2-8 mm long, tomentulose to glandular-hirsute, rarely nearly glabrate. Inflorescences racemose or paniculate, 3.3-9.2 cm long; rachis, pedicels, bracts, and bracteoles tomentulose to glandular hirsute; floral bracts lanceolate to narrowly ovate, plane to slightly navicular or carinate, 0.3-1.1(-2) x 0.4-2.5(-6) mm, often ciliate; pedicels 3-10(-14) mm long; bracteoles basal to supramedial, lanceolate, 2-5 mm long, ciliate or not. Flowers: calyx lobes triangular to broadly so, 1.7-2.5 x 1.3-1.8 mm, acute to acuminate, tomentulose, to glandular pubescent, or nearly glabrous, often ciliate; corollas 5.8-7.4 x 4.1-5.8 mm, glabrous to pubescent, greenish-white to white or pink, the lobes 0.9-1.3 x 1.3-2 mm; stamens 2.3-3.2 mm long; filaments 2-3 mm long, villous; anthers 1.2-1.5 x 0.7-1 mm, the spurs 0.6-1 mm long; ovary glabrous to pubescent; style 2.8-4.1 mm long, glabrous. Fruit red when immature, dark purple to black at maturity, 5-7 mm in diam.; seeds 2.3-2.7 x 1.1-1.4 mm, surface reticulate.

Distribution: Endemic to Mexico, to the mountains of Oaxaca and extreme S Puebla, in moist Quercus-Pinus forests, at elevations of (1800-)2100-3200 m. Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.

Key to Subspecies of Comarostaphylis spinulosa: 1. Petioles and inflorescences with only eglandular pubescence; lower leaf surfaces with variable indumentum ............. subsp. spinulosa 1. Petioles and inflorescences glandular hirtellous to glandular hirsute; lower leaf surfaces densely tomentose .......... subsp. glandulifera