Lyonia buchii Urb.

  • Family

    Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Lyonia buchii Urb.

  • Primary Citation

    Symb. Antill. (Urban) 8: 815. 1920

  • Common Names

    palo de reina

  • Description

    Description: Evergreen, erect shrub to medium-sized tree to ca. 6 m tall, with gray, longitudinally furrowed, somewhat shredding bark; twigs slightly angled, slender, sparsely to moderately lepidote, otherwise glabrous; buds ovoid, 1.2-3.5 x 1-2.5 mm. Leaf blades elliptic to ovate, (2.5-)3.5-10(-14) x 2-7(-9) cm, ± flat, coriaceous, ca. 0.25-0.45 mm thick; base rounded to narrowly cuneate; apex acute or acuminate to rounded; margin plane to slightly revolute, apical portion irregularly sinuous to obscurely and irregularly toothed, basal portion sinuous to entire; venation brochidodromous, 3° veins percurrent to reticulate; adaxial surface lepidote but scales usually quickly deciduous, glabrous on midvein, with all veins clearly slightly depressed; abaxial surface moderately to densely lepidote, otherwise densely pubescent, with all veins prominently raised and forming conspicuous network; scales rust colored, deciduous to persistent, ca. 0.08-0.34 mm in diameter, erose to nearly entire; petiole 5-13 mm long, lepidote, otherwise glabrous; flower buds ± intermixed with vegetative buds. Inflorescences shortly racemose to fasciculate, 4-to 10-flowered; pedicels clearly articulated with calyx, stout, 4-13(-25) mm long, lepidote, otherwise glabrous or less commonly sparsely pubescent; bracteoles opposite or subopposite, basal or nearly so, narrowly triangular, 1.5-3 mm long; floral bracts to ca. 5 mm long, usually caducous. Flowers (5-) 6- (7-)merous; calyx lobes triangular, with acute to acuminate apices, 2.5-4.5 X 1.5-2.5 mm, adaxial side sparsely pubescent near margins, abaxial side densely lepidote, otherwise sparsely or moderately pubescent; corolla carnose, widely urceolate to campanulate, white, 6-10 x 7-11 mm, abaxially densely to moderately lepidote; filaments roughened, 3.5-5 mm long, unappendaged or with poorly developed spurs to ca. 0.2 mm long near junction with anthers; anthers 1.5-2 mm long; ovary lepidote, otherwise pubescent, placentae subapical. Capsules subglobose to short-ovoid, (3-)3.5-6 x 5.5-9 mm, lepidote, otherwise sparsely to densely pubescent, the pale, very thick sutures separating as unit from adjacent valves; seeds 2-3.5 mm long.

    Distribution: Endemic to Hispaniola (Cordillera Central, including Massif du Nord, Massif de la Selle, and Massif des Cahos), chiefly in thickets, cloud forests, and low-elevation Pinus occidentalis forests, at 800-2100 m elev. Flowering ± continuously.

    Type: Haiti. In monte Brouet, 1800 m, Sep 1919, W. Buch 1699 (holotype, B n.v., destroyed; isotypes, GH, IJ).

    Illustration: Judd (1995), fig. 8.

  • Floras and Monographs

    Lyonia buchii Urb.: [Article] Luteyn, James L., et al. 1995. Ericaceae, Part II. The Superior-Ovaried Genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae P.P.). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 66: 560.