Agarista glaberrima (Sleumer) Judd

  • Description

    Description: Shrub or small tree to 4 m tall; twigs glabrous, with nonchambered to clearly chambered pith; buds to ca. 1 mm long, leaves conduplicate(?). Leaves coriaceous, ovate to narrowly ovate, 2.3-8.5 x 0.6-2.5(-3) cm, base cuneate to rounded and often slightly asymmetric, apex acuminate, margin entire (slightly undulate), plane, and entire lamina flat to strongly adaxially folded, adaxial surface glabrous (very sparsely pubescent on basal portion of midvein), abaxial surface glabrous, with few to many inconspicuous to conspicuous glandular dots along midvein; petiole 10-45 mm long, slender, frequently flexuous. Inflorescences axillary racemes, or terminal racemes or panicles, to 1-9.5 cm long; rachis glabrous; pedicels 2.5-8 mm long, glabrous; bracteoles 2, opposite to alternate, from nearly basal to near midpoint of pedicel, narrowly triangular, to ca. 0.9 mm long; floral bracts to ca. 1.4 mm long. Flowers with triangular calyx lobes, with acuminate (to nearly acute) apices, 0.8-1.7 x 0.5-1.3 mm, the abaxial surface glabrous; corolla ± cylindrical, white or greenish white, 6-10 x 2.7-4.5 mm, glabrous; filaments 3.5-4.5 mm long; anthers 1.1-1.3 mm long; ovary glabrous or nearly so. Capsules subglobose to short-ovoid, 4-8 x 6-8 mm, placentae subapical to nearly central; seeds 2-2.5 mm long.

    Distribution: Endemic to SE Brazil (Minas Gerais), in sandy to rocky cerrado vegetation, margins of woods, rocky and/or disturbed thickets, rocky hillsides, at 900-1500 m alt. Flowering chiefly November through February

    Illustration: Judd (1995), fig. 14.

    Type: Brazil. Minas Gerais: Santa Lúcia, Serra do Cipó, Km 135, 4 Feb 1938, Barreto 8921 (holotype, F; photo of holotype, F).

  • Floras and Monographs

    Agarista glaberrima (Sleumer) Judd: [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.