Tococa perclara Wurdack
-
Description
Description Author and Date: Fabian A. Michelangeli, January 2010, based on Michelangeli, F. A. (2005). Tococa (Melastomataceae). Flora Neotropica Monographs 98: 1-114.
Type: Venezuela. Miranda: along a moist forested quebrada in Selva de Guatopo, 43 Km NNW of Altagracia de Orituco, 41.5 km SE of Santa Teresa, 500 m, 11 SEP 1960, Steyermark 87078 (holotype US; isotype VEN).
Description: Erect shrub, up to 1-3 m tall. Stems with the trichomes arranged in two lines along the internodes, the trichomes 2-4 mm long, late caducous, the nodes with tufts of glandular and non glandular trichomes up to 4-9 mm long. Petioles 7-20 cm long, densely pubescent. Leaves isophyllous, oblong-elliptic, 35-65 x 20-40 cm, apex round to acute, base round to obtuse, adaxial side glabrous to very sparsely glandular, abaxial side glabrous to sparsely minute-setulose, light green, with 2 pairs of secondary veins, plinervate, the secondary nerves diverging 0.5-1.7 cm above the base of the blade, chartaceous to coriaceous, entire to obscurely serrulate; domatia absent. Inflorescence a terminal panicle, 10-20 cm long, with 20-60 (or more) flowers, the axis green, terete; flower pedicels 0.5-1.0 mm long; bracts persistent, elliptic, 5-9 x 1-3 mm; hypanthium campanulate, 3-4 mm long, with very sparse minute clavate glands, otherwise glabrous; sepals ovate-oblong, fused up to 0.5 mm at the base, 2.5-3.0 mm long, calyx teeth narrowly deltoid, projecting upwards parallel to the sepals, up to the same height, densely setose, 2.5 mm long; the ring inside the torus with minute glandular trichomes. Petals 5, ovate-oblong, entire, 8-9 x 4-5 mm, smooth, glandular setulose towards the apex, white to pink. Stamens all of the same size, the filaments 4.0-4.5 mm long, with small sessile glands; anthers blue; the connective with a dorsal-basal blunt tooth; thecae 4.5 mm long, opening by a upright pore. Ovary 5-locular, 1/2 inferior, the superior portion sulcate, the apex truncate, with sparse minute sessile glands; style with sparse minute glands at the base, 8-9 mm long; stigma capitate. Fruits globose, 4-5 mm long, black, glabrous. The seeds evident through the pericarp, truncate-obovate, 0.5-0.8 mm long, without capitate trichomes in the raphal area, with sculpturing, anticlinal walls s-shaped, periclinal walls flat, boundaries between periclinal walls flat. Chromosome number n= unknown.
Habitat and Distribution: Endemic to the Guatopo National Park in North-Central Venezuela. Growing in the understory of tropical evergreen forests up to 800 m.
Taxonomy and Systematics: Tococa perclara is endemic to the forests Guatopo National Park in the State of Miranda in Venezuela, although it might also occur in the forests of the interior coastal range. For comments on the systematic placement and overall similarities of T. perclara, see discussions under T. meridensis, and T. broadwayi.
-
Floras and Monographs
Tococa perclara Wurdack: [Article] Michelangeli, Fabián A. 2005.
(Melastomataceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 98: 1-114.
