Leandra amplexicaulis DC.

  • Family

    Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Leandra amplexicaulis DC.

  • Description

    Description: Shrubs or treelets, (0.5)1–3(5) m tall. Branches, petioles, leaves, inflorescences and bracteoles covered by appressed, unbranched trichomes (0.4–1.5 mm), these sparser on leaf blade surfaces, denser on branches, inflorescences and hypanthia; seldom unbranched glandular trichomes (0.7–1 mm) mixed on the hypanthia. Leaves slightly anisophyllous in each pair (up to 6:8 ratio); petioles 0(–0.4) cm long; blades (12)15–25(30) × (3)4–8 cm, lanceolate, seldom slightly obovate, apex acuminate, base amplexicaulous, margin entire or crenulate, ciliate (0.7–1 mm), chartaceous; 3–5 acrodromous nerves, plus 0–1 additional pair of faint veins, plinerved, distant (12)17–30(50) mm above the base, acrodromous nerves slightly printed, transversal not conspicuous on adaxial surface and acrodromous and transversal nerves prominent on abaxial, reticulation conspicuous or not. Inflorescences terminal, 1–3(5) per node, (6.5)7.5–15(–20) cm long, (3)4–5 pairs of opposite paraclades, accessory branches absent, > 30 flowers per inflorescence, these in glomerules; bracteoles 5.5–8 × 3–5(7) mm, oblong or obovate, seldom elliptic or ovate, glabrous with a ciliate margin, involucral, persistent. Flowers 6-merous, sessile. Hypanthium 4–5 × 2.5–3 mm, tubular or slightly campanulate, torus indumentum absent. Calyx tube 0.3–0.6 mm long; inner lobes 1.5–2.5 × 1–1.5 mm, ovate to triangular with a rounded apex; external teeth 1–2.5 mm long. Petals white, 4–5 × 1–1.5 mm, linear to lanceolate, apex acute or acuminate, glabrous or seldom with an apical glandular trichome (0.4–0.6), spreading or reflexed at anthesis. Stamens 12, opposite to the style; filaments geniculation present, the larger 4–6 mm long, the smaller 2.5–4.5 mm long; anthers pink, the larger 3.7–5 mm long, the smaller 2.8–3.8 mm long, linear-subulate, dorsally curved, pore 0.12–0.15 mm wide, connectives dorsally produced below the anthers 0.1–0.6 mm, appendage present in the larger anthers, as a basal-dorsal bifurcation in the connective. Ovary 4–celled, 2.5–3.5 × 1.5–2 mm, 20–40 % inferior, apex densely covered by unbranched trichomes (ca. 1 mm). Style ca. 12 mm long, sigmoid, opposite of the stamens, stigma ca. 0.25 mm diam. Berries black, 6–9 × 4.5–8 mm. Seeds 0.85–1 × ca. 0.5 mm, long-obpyramidal, hilum covering 9/10 of the seed length, anticlinal cell walls flat.

    Notes: Leandra amplexicaulis is readily identified by the leaves with amplexicaulous bases (but see notes of L. melastomoides). Cogniaux (1888) placed L. amplexicaulis along L. pectinata and L. longistyla in his key. This author used the number of acrodromous nerves to separate L. longistyla from L. amplexicaulis, and the shorter external calyx teeth to identify L. pectinata. However, all specimens examined present the same number of veins (5 or 3+2), including the type of L. longistyla, and the external teeth length is variable. It is not clear which would be the diagnostic characters of L. attenuata, a third species described by the same author later (Cogniaux 1891). Leandra attenuata and L. pectinata were suggested as potential synonyms of L. amplexicaulis by Baumgratz & Souza (2011).

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