Miconia glaberrima (Schltdl.) Naudin

  • Family

    Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Miconia glaberrima (Schltdl.) Naudin

  • 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: Mexico, Schiede s.n. (HAL!)

    Description: Dioecious shrub or small tree 1.5-10 m tall with quadrate to rounded-quadrate cauline internodes, essentially glabrous throughout or sometimes the uppermost internodes, vegetative buds, petioles, and inflorescence rachis deciduously and sparsely brown-furfuraceous. Leaves of a pair essentially equal or somewhat unequal in size; blades 3-nerved or if 3-plinerved then the innermost pair of primary veins diverging from the midvein 0.3-1.2 cm above the blade base, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 5.9-19.5 X 2-5.7 cm, apex attenuate to acuminate, base mostly acute, the margin inconspicuously ciliate-serrulate varying to conspicuously ciliate-serrulate to subentire; petioles 0.5-4.7 cm long. Inflorescence a multiflowered panicle 6-14 cm long; flowers 5-merous, functionally unisexual, on pedicels 0.5-1 mm long, the early deciduous bracteoles elliptic and cucullate, 0.75-2.5 x 0.25-0.5 mm, glabrous with ± fimbricate margins. Calyx tube 0.25 mm long, the calyx lobes rounded to ovoid or suborbicular varying to bluntly triangular, 0.5 x 1 mm, the exterior calyx teeth triangular, 0.25 mm long and typically shorter than the calyx lobes. Petals white, glabrous, obovate, 1-1.5 x 1 mm. Anthers isomorphic, white, oblong to cuneate, typically widest at the apex, 4-celled and 2-pored, (0.75) 1-1.5 long in staminate flowers with connective somewhat elevated dorso-basally and prolonged ventro-basally into a lobule 0.1 mm long at the base of each anther sac, anthers 0.5-0.75(-1) mm long in pistillate flowers, non-polleniferous with connective barely thickened and not prolonged abaxially the thecae. Style vestigial or absent in male flowers, glabrous and 2.5-3.5 mm long in female flowers; stigma peltate in female flowers; ovary 3-locular, 2/3 inferior, apex glabrous; berry 4-5 x 4-5 mm when dry, typically white at maturity. Seeds narrowly ovoid, the testa minutely but uniformly papillate, 0.75 mm long.

    Habitat and Distribution: Disturbed sites in pine-oak forest, cloud forest, and montane rain forest. 1080-2800 m. Mexico (Jalisco, Michoacan, México, Morelos, Puebla, Veracruz, Guerrero, Oaxaca). Collections from El Salvador, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia have also been identified as M. glaberrima but they are in need of additional study before they can be definitively assigned to this species. MEXICO: Chiapas (Breedlove & Almeda 58072, CAS); BELIZE (Hawkins 1519, CAS); GUATEMALA (Contreras 4895, DS); HONDURAS (Thomas 657, MO).

    Taxonomy and Systematics: In the staminate flowers of M. glaberrima the style is vestigial and rarely evident. In pistillate flowers the style is well-developed, the stigma is prominently peltate, and the anthers are somewhat smaller than those on staminate flowers but clearly non-polleniferous. Miconia glaberrima is part of a complex of functionally dioecious species in Mexico and northern Central America that includes M. alpestris, M. hemenostigma, M. oligotricha, and M. sterilis. This entire complex is in need of field study to sort out diagnostic characters and variation patterns.

    Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

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