Miconia coriacea (Sw.) DC.

  • Family

    Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Miconia coriacea (Sw.) DC.

  • 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: Isotype: Guadeloupe, Swartz s.n. (S).

    Description: Dioecious shrub or tree 2-7 m tall, the uppermost cauline internodes conspicuously quadrate, glabrous and rugose, vegetative buds and young expanding leaves sometimes beset with an early deciduous stellulate-furfuraceous or matted furfuraceous indument. Leaves of a pair essentially equal in size; blades 5-7-nerved, elliptic to ovate, 7-15.5 x 2.9-8 cm, apex acute to bluntly cuspidate, base obtuse to rounded or subcordate, the margin usually ± revolute and coarsely serrulate with thickened incurved teeth; petioles 1.7-3.7 cm long. Inflorescence a multiflowered panicle 7-15 cm long; flowers 5-merous, unisexual, sessile or on short pedicels to 0.5 mm long, the deciduous bracteoles obovate to ovate, 2.5-6 x 1-3 mm, sparingly ciliate. Calyx tube 0.25 mm long, the calyx lobes suborbicular and hyaline, 0.5-1 x 1 mm; the exterior calyx teeth bluntly rounded-triangular, 0.25-0.5 mm long, shorter than the calyx lobes. Petals white, glabrous, obovate, 2-2.5 x 1.5 mm. Anthers isomorphic, 1 mm long (pistillate flowers), 1.2-1.4 mm long (staminate flowers), white, oblong, 2-celled and 2-pored, the pores somewhat ventrally inclined; connective thickened and ± truncate dorso-basally and somewhat bilobulate ventro-basally. Style glabrous, 3 mm long; stigma capitate with a crateriform apex; ovary 3-locular, 2/3 inferior, apex glabrous; berry 4-5 x 4-5 mm when dry, changing from green to pink and then blue or purple at maturity. Seeds angulate-ovoid, the testa smooth, 1 mm long.

    Habitat and Distribution: Light gaps in cloud forest. 1600-2600 m. Dominica and Guadeloupe.COSTA RICA (Almeda & Nakai 4667, CAS).

    Taxonomy and Systematics: The style in M. coriacea is fistulose at least distally and the stigma is capitate with a conspicuous crateriform apex. The three known montane Costa Rican collections that I am assigning to M. coriacea are a good match in vegetative and fruit details for Lesser Antilles material. Good flowering collections from Central America are needed to definitively fix its identity because available Costa Rican material is only in fruit or in young bud. Consequently, the decription presented here is based on material from both Costa Rica and the Lesser Antilles.

    Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

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