Miconia minutiflora (Bonpl.) DC.
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Family
Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)
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Scientific Name
Miconia minutiflora (Bonpl.) DC.
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Primary Citation
Prodr. (DC.) 3: 189. 1828
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Basionym
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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: Holotype: Venezuela, Bonpland s.n. (P).
Description: Shrubs or trees 1-7(-15) m tall, the young branchlets, elevated primary leaf veins beneath, inflorescences, and hypanthia very sparsely and deciduously stellate puberulent, distal nodes with an interpetiolar line or ridge. Leaves 3-5-nerved, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 5-12.5 X 2-5.5 cm, essentially glabrous on both surfaces, apex long-acuminate, base rounded to obtuse, the margin entire; petioles 0.5-1.5 cm long. Panicle (5-)7-15 cm long, the 5-merous flowers on peduncles 0.25-1.5 mm long, the flowers actually sessile and disarticulating at brateolate nodes, the early deciduous bracteoles linear-oblong, 0.5-1 mm long. Calyx tube ca. 0.2 mm long or less from the torus, the depressed semicircular or broadly deltoid lobes 0.1-0.25 mm long, deciduous on maturing berries, the exterior teeth mostly inconspicuous callose thickenings not projecting beyond the lobes. Petals oblong-obovate, papillose on both surfaces, 1.5-2 X 1 mm. Stamens somewhat unequal; anthers narrowly cuneate with a ventrally inclined pore, 1.25-2 mm long, white, connective prolonged 0.25-0.5 mm and dilated dorso-basally into an irregularly lobed spur or shallowly undulate semicircular appendage. Style glabrous, 2.5-3 mm long; stigma clavate; ovary 3-locular, 1/2 inferior, apex glabrous; berry 2-3 X 3-4 mm, blue-black at maturity. Seeds pyramidate, irregularly and obscurely rugulate on the convex face, 0.5-0.7 mm long.
Habitat and Distribution: Locally common in rain forest, pine savanna, gallery forest margins, disturbed sites. 0-1700 m. Southern Mexico (Guerrero and Veracruz southward), Cuba, Trinidad, Surinam, French Guiana, Colombia and Venezuela south to Bolivia and N Brazil. MEXICO: Chiapas (Breedlove & Almeda 57939, CAS); BELIZE (Schipp S-554, F); GUATEMALA (Contreras 2875, CAS); HONDURAS (Saunders 896, CAS); NICARAGUA (Ortiz 230, CAS); COSTA RICA (Almeda et al. 3324, CAS); PANAMA (Almeda et al. 7682, CAS).
Taxonomy and Systematics: This species includes M. borealis of southern Mexico, Central America, and Cuba. Gleason (1928) based his segregation of these taxa on minor calyx differences: calyx lobes depressed-triangular in M. borealis vs. depressed semicircular in M. minutiflora. Because these differences appear to be extremes in a morphological continuum, I see no defensible way of adopting Gleason's taxonomy. Miconia myriantha Benth. of South America is also part of this species complex and may prove to be conspecific with M. minutiflora when variation among this widespread trio of species is re-evaluated. The massive short-period flowering of this species reported by Mori & Pipoly (1984) for a French Guiana population also appears to be typical of Central American populations.
Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]
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Floras and Monographs
Miconia minutiflora (Bonpl.) DC.: [Article] Maguire, Bassett, et al. 1953. The Botany of the Guayana Highland. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 8 (2): 87-160.
