Ossaea micrantha (Sw.) Macfad. ex Cogn.

  • 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.

    Description: Shrub or small tree 1-7 m, the young branchlets, juvenile foliage, inflorescences, and hypanthia sparsely to moderately covered with squamate-stellulate, deciduous pubescence. Leaves 6.5-20 X 5-8 cm, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 5-plinerved, base acute to obtuse (rarely rounded), apex short- or long-acuminate, the margin entire to remotely undulate-denticulate, sparsely squamate-stellulate to glabrous on both surfaces. Inflorescences 3.5-5 cm long, divaricately branched at or near the base; flowers 4-merous, sessile, the deciduous, narrowly triangular bracteoles 0.5 mm long. Calyx tube (on fruiting hypanthia) ca 0.5 mm long, erect and flangelike with depressed undulate lobes, the external teeth merely thickened but inconspicuous and not projecting beyond the tube. Petals lanceolate, 3-4(-5) X 1-1.5 mm, sparsely squamate abaxially, otherwise glabrous. Filaments 1.5-2 mm long; anther thecae 1-1.5 mm long with two dorsally inclined pores; prolonged connective and dorso-basal gland-edged tooth collectively ca 0.5 mm long. Ovary 4-celled, completely inferior; berry 8-costate.

    Habitat and Distribution: Rain forest, cloud forest, swamp forest. 10-2100 m. (Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Hispaniola, Jamaica.) MEXICO: Chiapas (Martínez & Reyes 20394, CAS); BELIZE Gentle 4281, CAS); GUATEMALA (Contreras 9312, CAS); HONDURAS (MacDougal et al. 3321, CAS); NICARAGUA (Moreno 23191, CAS); COSTA RICA (Almeda & Anderson 5433, CAS); PANAMA (Antonio 4937, CAS).

    Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

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