Clidemia tenebrosa Almeda

  • Family

    Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Clidemia tenebrosa Almeda

  • 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: Holotype: Panama, Almeda et al. 6392 (CAS!).

    Description: Monopodial or sparingly branched shrub 1-3 m tall with rounded-quadrate internodes. Upper internodes, petioles, both leaf surfaces, inflorescence rachis, pedicels, hypanthia and calyx teeth copiously covered with smooth (gland-tipped in part) spreading hairs 1.5-3 mm long. Leaves of a pair essentially equal in size and consistently bearing paired elongate formicaria 4-7 cm long extending from the adaxial blade base onto the distal portions of the petiole; blades chartaceous, flexuous when fresh and very brittle when dry, 22-44.5 cm long and 10-16.5 cm wide, elliptic to ovate-elliptic, apex long-acuminate, base rounded to obtuse, margin inconspicuously denticulate, 7-9-plinerved with the innermost pair of primary veins diverging from the median vein 2-3 cm above the blade base, the primary and higher order veins sparsely beset with a ground layer of minute glands sometimes sparingly intermixed with minute stellate hairs. Inflorescence axillary congested dichasia 2-3.5 cm long that are paired at a node, the rachis, pedicels and hypanthia sparsely to moderately beset with a ground cover of tardily deciduous glands and stellulate hairs; bracteoles subulate, 1.5-2 x 0.25 mm (including the apical hair), inconspicuous and obscured by the surrounding indument of spreading hairs. Flowers 5-merous on pedicels 0.5-1 mm long. Hypanthia (at anthesis) subcylindric. Calyx tube ca. 0.5 mm long, the calyx lobes triangular, 0.75-1 x 1-1.5 mm glandular-puberulent adaxially and along the margins; calyx teeth subulate, 4-5 mm long, greatly exceeding and obscuring abaxial surface of the calyx lobes. Petals glabrous, translucent white, obovate to oblong, 4-5 x 2-3.5 mm. Filaments glabrous, 2.5-3 mm long; anthers 1.5 mm long, 0.5 mm wide, white, linear-oblong to subulate, truncate at the apex with a somewhat dorsally inclined pore; connective somewhat thickened dorsally but neither prolonged nor appendaged below the thecae. Ovary 5-locular, completely inferior, apex somewhat crateriform at anthesis, minutely glandular puberulent like the adaxial vascular ring of the hypanthium. Berry blue at maturity, 6 x 5 mm. Seeds 0.5 mm long, the testa smooth to vaguely rugulate.

    Habitat and Distribution: Cloud forests, typically in deep shade. 200-1100 m. PANAMA (Correa & Montenegro 10036, PMA). (Endemic).

    Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

  • Sorry, no descriptions available for this record.