Miconia brachybotrya Triana

  • Family

    Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Miconia brachybotrya Triana

  • Primary Citation

    Trans. Linn. Soc. London 28: 111. 1871

  • Type Specimens

    Specimen 1: Isosyntype -- R. Spruce 3383

  • Description

    Description Author and Date: Frank Almeda, based on Almeda, F. (2009). Melastomataceae. In: G. Davidse, M. Sousa-Sânchez, S. Knapp, & F. Chiang (eds.), Flora Mesoamericana: Cucurbitaceae a Polemoniaceae. 4(1): 164-338.

    Type: Syntype: Venezuela, Spruce 3383 (K).

    Description: Shrub to 2 m tall, the uppermost terete internodes, vegetative buds, petioles, elevated primary veins on abaxial leaf surfaces, and inflorescence branches copiously covered with smooth appressed hairs mostly 1-2 mm long. Leaves of a pair somewhat unequal in size; blades 5-7-plinerved with the innermost pair of primaries diverging from the midvein 0.5-3.5 cm above the blade base, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 13-30 x 7.2-13 cm, apex obtusely acuminate, base acute and decurrent on the petiole, the margin entire but densely ciliate (often glandular in part); petioles 1-3 cm long. Inflorescence a little-branched panicle 3-11 cm long with sessile flowers aggregated in verticels or at the ends of lateral branchlets; flowers 5-merous, the persistent bracteoles elliptic, 1-2.5 x 0.5 mm, densely covered abaxially with smooth hairs 0.5-1 mm long. Hypanthia sparsely and deciduously beset with appressed to antrorsely spreading smooth hairs 0.5-1 mm long; calyx tube 0.25 mm long, the calyx lobes depressed triangular, 0.75 x 1.5 mm; the exterior calyx teeth bluntly triangular and commonly obscured by the setose indument, 1 mm long and ± equaling or only slightly exceeding the obscured calyx lobes. Petals white becoming pinkish with age, glabrous, obovate-oblong, 3 x 1.5-2 mm. Anthers alternately slightly unequal in size, 2.5-4 mm long, narrowly oblong with ventrally inclined pores; connective not prolonged but inconspicuously lobulate at the base. tyle glabrous, 5.5 mm long; stigma truncate; ovary 3-locular, 1/2 inferior, apex glabrous, ± rounded in fruit; berry ca. 4-5 x 4-5 mm when dry, blue at maturity. Seeds ± ovoid, the testa densely muriculate, 0.5 mm long.

    Habitat and Distribution: Local in primary rain forest, stream margins. 0-850 m. Also inVenezuela to Amazonian Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Guyana. PANAMA (Cuadros et al. 3863, CAS).

    Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

  • Sorry, no descriptions available for this record.