Miconia markgrafii Urb. & Ekman

Description

Description Author and Date: Walter S. Judd, 2010, based on Judd, W. S. (2007). Revision of Miconia sect. Chaenopleura (Melastomataceae) in the Greater Antilles. Systematic Botany Monographs 81:1-235.

Type: HAITI. Massif de la Selle, Croix des Bouquets, ravine between Badeau and Camp Franc, 1200 m, 22 Feb 1927, E. L. Ekman H7673 (holotype: S!).

Nomenclature remarks: NAMED PUTATIVE HYBRID

Taxonomy and Systematics: A plant similar to M. ferruginea but with larger leaves with strongly serrate margins, i.e., the largest teeth to 1.7 mm, a densely ferrugineous abaxial indumentum (in which stellate hairs are borne on the lamina as well as the major veins), elongate inflorescences with stout axes that lack long-stalked gland-headed hairs, flowers with external calyx lobes to 0.8 mm long, internal calyx lobes to 1.5 mm long, and usually 5-loculate ovaries was described as M. markgrafii by Urban and Ekman (1929). They compared this entity with M. ferruginea. Similar plants have been collected by A.H. Liogier in the Sierra de Baoruco (see below). These specimens are completely intermediate between M. ferruginea and M. subcompressa, as can be seen by comparing the features noted above with the descriptions of these two species. The former has smaller, serrulate leaves (with largest teeth 0.5-1 mm long) that are sparsely to moderately covered with ferrugineous stellate-branched hairs on the higher order veins (but lacking such hairs on the lamina), shorter inflorescences with more slender axes that often have scattered long-stalked glandular hairs, and small flowers (e.g., hypanthium 1.4-1.6, external calyx lobes 0.2-0.5 mm long, internal calyx lobes 0.4-1 mm long, and petals 2.5-4.4) and fruits (e.g., 5-7 mm long; 3- or 4-loculate). The latter species has large, strongly serrate leaves (with largest teeth 0.4-4 mm long) that are densely covered with ferrugineous stellate-branched hairs, larger inflorescences with very stout axes that lack long-stalked gland-headed hairs, and larger flowers (e.g., hypanthium 1.7-2.2 mm long, external calyx lobes 0.4-3 mm long, internal calyx lobes 1.2-3.3 mm long, and petals 3.8-6.3 mm long) and fruits (i.e., 8-11 mm long; 5-loculate). Both species commonly grow together in the Massif de la Selle/Sierra de Baoruco. These unusual specimens are considered here to represent hybrids between these two species, based on their morphological intermediacy.

Habitat and Distribution: Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Massif de la Selle/Sierra de Baoruco; cloud forests and moist forests of Pinus occidentalis; 1200-1600 m.