Miconia hyperprasina Naudin

  • Family

    Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Miconia hyperprasina 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, Linden 640 (P!).

    Description: Shrubs or small trees 1-3(-6) m tall, the young branchlets and inflorescences moderately to sparingly beset with a deciduous ferrugineous indument. Leaves 3(-5)-nerved, thinly membranaceous when dry, narrowly to broadly elliptic, 11-26(-32) X 3.5-11(-14.5) cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially essentially glabrous but often inconspicuously beset with hyaline oblong glands, apex acute to gradually acuminate, base acute to obtuse, the margin undulate to undulate-denticulate; petioles 1.2-2 cm long. Panicle 5-14 cm long, typically narrowly triangular in outline, the 5-merous flowers sessile and subsecund on the outermost branchlets, the deciduous bracteoles subulate, 0.5-1 X 0.25 mm. Hypanthia moderately to copiously beset with a tardily deciduous stellulate-furfuraceous indument; calyx tube 0.5 mm long, the broadly deltoid to somewhat rounded involute lobes 0.25 mm long from the sinuses, the tuberculate exterior teeth ca. 0.25 mm long and barely exceeding the lobes. Petals oblong-obovate, 2 X 1.5 mm, distally papillate abaxially with a sparse inconspicuous admixture of hyaline glands. Stamens unequal abaxially with a sparse inconspicuous admixture of hyaline glands. Stamens unequal in size; anthers linear-oblong, alternately 2.2-2.5 mm and 1.7-2 mm long, white, the larger with a truncate to ventrally inclined pore, the smaller with a dorsally inclined pore; connective thickened dorsally and dilated ventro-basally into a bluntly bifid incurved appendage (sometimes beset with one or few glands). Style glabrous, 4-6 mm long; stigma capitellate; ovary 3-locular, 2/3 inferior, apex elevated into a depressed resinous-granulose bowl-like collar, berry 5-6 X 5-6 mm. Seeds irregularly ovoid-deltoid, complexly costate-tuberculate, 0.5-0.7 mm long.

    Habitat and Distribution: Local and uncommon, rain forest, river banks. 80-850 m. Southern Mexico (Oaxaca & Veracruz southward). MEXICO: Tabasco (Cowan 2101, CAS); Chiapas (Breedlove & Almeda 56794, CAS); BELIZE (Gentle 5109, CAS); GUATEMALA (Contreras 9391, CAS); HONDURAS(Standley & Williams, 1963:479); NICARAGUA (Stevens 6341, CAS); COSTA RICA (Burger 11749, CAS).

    Taxonomy and Systematics: This species has been confused with M. affinis and M. laevigata. Descriptions of M. hyperprasina in the floristic literature of Central America have sometimes incorporated characters of all three taxa. Miconia affinis differs in having an interpetiolar nodal line or ridge on distal branches, calyx lobes that collectively abscise as a ring on maturing berries, and seeds that are angulate-pyramidate and obscurely papillate. Miconia laevigata is distinguished by its stellulate indument on young branches, leaf veins beneath, and inflorescences, persistent bracteoles, and ovoid-rounded seeds that are obscurely rugulate. Miconia hyperprasina is actually closest to M. gracilis which differs consistently in its thicker entire leaves and inflorescences consisting of one or several elongate subracemose branches.

    Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

  • Sorry, no descriptions available for this record.