Miconia capixaba R.Goldenb.

  • Family

    Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Miconia capixaba R.Goldenb.

  • Primary Citation

    A new species of Miconia Ruiz & Pavon (Melastomataceae) from Espirito Santo, Brazil
    Novon 9: 514. 1999

  • Description

    Description Author and Date: Renato Goldenberg, Oct. 2011, based on the original description, Goldenberg, R. 1999. Novon 9: 514-516.

    Type: Brasil. Espírito Santo: "Município de Santa Teresa, Estação Biológica de Santa Lúcia, árvore não amostrada, próximo à parcela 63", 21 Jul 1993 (fl.), L.D. Thomaz s. n. (holotype: MBML 9300; isotypes: CEPEC, MO, K, UEC).

    Description: Tree 4-16 m. Young branches slightly compressed, older branches terete, internodes 1.4-3 cm long, along with inflorescences, hypanthium and petioles densely covered with stellate, yellowish-brown to ferrugineous trichomes ca. 0.1 mm in diam. Petioles 5-10 mm long, canaliculate, slightly sulcate. Blades 6.5-12 x 1.4-3.1 cm, lanceolate, apex acuminate, base cuneate and shortly (1-2 mm) decurrent, entire to repand on the upper half, chartaceous, lamina adaxially stellate-furfuraceous, soon glabrous, lustrous and dark olive-green, abaxially also densely stellate pubescent, white, but nerves yellowish-brown, shortly 3-plinerved, with a faint pair of inframarginal nerves, secondary veins free, diverging 1-2 mm from the base; primary, secondary and transverse veins impressed above, but primary and secondary veins below prominent and with transverse ones faint, reticulation barely visible above and below, the areoles 0.7-1 mm in diam. Panicles 1-2.5 x 0.9-1 cm, terminal, pyramidate or elongate, depauperate, with 2 branchlets per node; bracteoles ca. 0.6 mm long, narrowly deltoid to linear, persistent; flowers sessile (laterals in each dichasium on short, ca. 1 mm, peduncles), 5-merous. Hypanthium ca. 1.6 mm long, campanulate, without longitudinal ridges; calyx tube 0.2-0.3 mm long, caducous, inner lobes ca. 0.6 mm long, triangular, acute; outer lobes inconspicuous. Petals 1.7 x 1 mm, papillose, margins papillose-ciliate, obovate to oblong, apex deeply emarginate, with 2 irregular lobes 0,3 mm long. Stamens 10, in two series, white, only lightly heteromorphic, the larger ones with filaments 1.9-2.1 mm long, anthers 1.7-1.8 mm long, linear-oblong, arcuate, thecae 1.3-1.4 mm long; the smaller ones with filaments 1.5-1.9 mm, anthers 1.4-1.5 mm, linear-oblong, straight, thecae ca. 1.1 mm; anthers of both cycles with a narrow apical pore, ca. 0.1 mm in diam.; connective prolonged 0.3-0.4 mm below the thecae, dorsally thickened and not appendaged, ventrally with two minute lobes, sometimes directed backwards and appearing like dorsal appendages. Ovary 0.7-0.9 mm high, fused to the hypanthium for ½ of its length, 3-celled, with 2-3 ovules in each cell, apex rounded, obscurely 5-lobed, papillose; style 4.5-5 mm long, filiform, apex truncate, not thickened. Mature fruits not seen.

    Habitat and Distribution: Miconia capixaba occurs in the mountains of the state of Espírito Santo, along the Brazilian coast between Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. These mountains present a particularly rich flora (Thomaz & Monteiro 1997), with several endemic melastomes, such as Dolichoura espiritusanctensis Brade, Meriania tetramera Wurdack, Merianthera burlemarxii Wurdack and Leandra fallacissima Markgraf. The melastome flora of Espírito Santo also includes some poorly known species, otherwise collected only in adjacent Rio de Janeiro (Miconia longicaudata Cogniaux, M. octopetala Cogniaux, M. setosociliata Cogniaux) or Bahia (Meriania callophylla (Naudin) Triana).

    Taxonomy and Systematics: Miconia capixaba is morphologically similar to species in the section Miconia ser. Paniculares Naudin and section Glossocentrum Bentham & Hooker, but the morphology of its anthers indicates relationship to the former (connective ventrally bilobed vs. dorsally calcarate or inappendaged). Within Miconia ser. Paniculares, Miconia weddellii Naudin has glomerulate inflorescences (Wurdack 1974) and leaves denselly villose below. Miconia burchellii Triana and M. pohliana Cogniaux differ in many vegetative characters (leaves broader, 5-7 nerved, with rounded to cordate bases). Miconia irwinii has less dense pubescence and rounded, wider calyx lobes. Miconia cipoensis R. Goldenberg (in press) has similar inflorescences and flowers, but shorter and wider leaves with dendritic trichomes and a stellate ovary apex. Within Miconia section Glossocentrum, M. capixaba is vegetatively similar to M. cubatanensis, which has stamens with a single dorsal appendage and a completely inferior ovary with its apex covered by stellate trichomes. Miconia brasiliensis (Sprengel) Triana and M. pauciflora Cogniaux also have quite similar flowers, but with inappendaged or dorsally calcarate stamens and leaves with more sparsely distributed trichomes. Miconia setosociliata Cogniaux has ciliate leaf margins (often not evident in some collections from Espírito Santo, like W. Boone 446, US), clubbed dendritic hairs on the branchlets, and bleades with the nerves basally fused by a membrane. Finally, M. pepericarpa DC. has 4-merous flowers and dendritic trichomes on the lower leaf surface.

    Etymology: The epithet "capixaba" is the Brazilian name for people or things native to the state of Espírito Santo.

  • Sorry, no descriptions available for this record.