Miconia laevigata (L.) D.Don
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Family
Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)
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Scientific Name
Miconia laevigata (L.) D.Don
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Common Names
smooth johnnyberry, camasey, camasey de paloma, palo de costilla, smooth miconia
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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: Lectotype (designated by Rendle, fide Howard & Kellogg, 1986): Jamaica, (LINN 559.10).
Description: Shrubs 2.5-5 m tall, the young branchlets, petioles, leaf veins beneath, inflorescences, and hypanthia sparsely to moderately beset with deciduous stellulate hairs. Leaves (3-)5-nerved, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-ovate, (5.5-)10-20(-25) X 3-6 cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially glabrous on the actual surface, apex attenuate to gradually acuminate, base obtuse to rounded, the margin obscurely denticulate to entire; petioles 1-4 cm long. Panicle (3-)5-10(-15) cm long; flowers 5-merous, sessile and secund on the outermost branchlets, the persistent bracteoles linear-oblong to narrowly subulate, 0.5-1 mm long. Calyx tube 0.25 mm long, the rounded lobes mostly 0.25 mm long, the tuberculate teeth 0.25 mm long but not projecting beyond the lobes. Petals oblong-obovate, 2.5-3 X 1.5-2 mm, minutely papillate. Stamens somewhat unequal; anthers linear-oblong, white, alternately 3 mm and 2.5 mm long, the larger with a ventrally inclined pore, the smaller with a truncate to retuse pore; connective of the larger anthers barely prolonged but dilated basally into a gently lobed biauriculate appendage that forms a dorso-basal collar, connective of the smaller anthers dilated ventro-basally into a smaller bilobed appendage. Style glabrous, 5-6 mm long; stigma clavate-truncate; ovary 3-locular, 1/2 inferior, apex minutely papillate to glabrate; berry 5 X 5 mm, blue-black at maturity. Seeds ovoid and rounded, obscurely rugulate, 0.5 mm long.
Habitat and Distribution: Local, cloud forest, rain forest. 120-1400 m. Eastern and southwestern Mexico (San Luís Potosí and Guerrero southward), Greater and Lesser Antilles, Trinidad to Venezuela and Colombia south to Peru. MEXICO: Tabasco (Cowan et al. 2847, CAS); Chiapas (Breedlove & Almeda 60181, CAS); Campeche, Quintana Roo y Yucatán (Cabrera & Cabrera 6653, CAS); BELIZE (Daniel 7043, CAS); GUATEMALA (Contreras 8222, CAS); HONDURAS (Nelson et al. 6742, CAS); EL SALVADOR (Chinchilla s.n., CAS); NICARAGUA (Sandino 2499, CAS); COSTA RICA (Schubert 648, US).
Taxonomy and Systematics: In some populations the stellulate pubescence of the abaxial leaf surface and hypanthia is intermixed with oblong hyaline glands.
Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]
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Floras and Monographs
Miconia laevigata (L.) D.Don: [Manuscript] Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Miconia laevigata (L.) D.Don: [Article] Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Narratives
