Miconia bicolor var. bicolor

Description

Description Author and Date: Walter S. Judd, Eldis R. Bécquer Granados, James D. Skean Jr., and Lucas C. Majure modified from "Taxonomic studies in the Miconieae (Melastomataceae). XII. Revision of Miconia sect. Miconiastrum, with emphasis on the Miconia bicolor complex". Judd, Walter S., Bécquer Granados, Eldis R., Skean, James D., Jr., Majure, Lucas C.; J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas. 8 (2): 457-491. 2014

Type: Loc. Natalis [country unknown], P. Miller s.n. (lectotype, designated by Walter S. Judd, Eldis R. Bécquer Granados, James D. Skean Jr., and Lucas C. Majure, 2014, following the suggestion of W.T. Gillis, annotation on sheet, 19 Jun 1973, BM, on-line image #001008022!).

Description: Stems and inflorescence axes lacking elongate, multicellular, eglandular hairs.

Chromosome number: 2n = 34 (Solt & Wurdack 1980).

Phenology: Flowering has been recorded in every month of the year.

Distribution and ecology: Miconia bicolor var. bicolor occurs natively in southern Florida (Miami-Dade Co.), the Bahamas (Andros, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama, Great Abaco, and New Providence Islands), western Cuba (mainly in Prov. Pinar del Río, Isla de la Juventud), central Cuba (mainly in Prov. Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, and Villa Clara) and, less commonly, the “Oriente” region (Prov. Guantánamo, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba), and on Hispaniola (widespread in the Dominican Republic and Haiti), growing in thickets or coppice, moist to dry broadleaved forests, and open to dense pine forests, pine and/or palm savannas, or disturbed habitats, on limestone, serpentine, or gravely to sandy soils, from near sea-level to 1200 m (Fig. 4). The species has been introduced into Hawaii, where it is locally naturalized in mesic to wet forests near Hilo (Wagner et al. 1990).

Taxonomy and Systematics: Miconia bicolor var. bicolor is the most common and widely distributed taxon of Miconia sect. Miconiastrum. It is also the most variable. Plants of the Bahamas and southern Florida are phenetically most similar to those of western Cuba (i.e., Prov. Pinar del Río), however, they consistently have mite domatia, while those of Pinar del Río are variable: some having domatia and some lacking these structures. Some plants of Pinar del Río and Isla de la Juventud have the stems, abaxial surface of their leaves, and hypanthia nearly to somewhat glabrescent and covered with a sticky secretion (e.g., Acevedo-Rdgz. et al. 5706, Acuña SC-22673, Bécquer et al. HFC-85059, Killip 44741, Roig & Cremata SV-7117, and Yero D. HFC-81190). Another group of plants have stems, abaxial surface of their leaves, and hypanthia conspicuously lepidote, and the adaxial leaf surface often drying a distinctive yellowish color (e.g., Bécquer & Abbott HFC-82286, Bécquer & Morejón R. HFC-83986, Bécquer & Morejón R. HFC-84011, and Bro. León et al. LS-17821). Variation within Pinar del Río may be ecologically correlated, but more fieldwork (and intensive molecular sampling) is required. Plants of Hispaniola are distinctive in having stems with hairs more or less globular-stellate, stellate-peltate, to dendritic and erect (see numerous specimens cited above), while stems with appressed stellate-scales or branched hairs characterize plants of other regions, except that a few specimens with erect, dendritic hairs also occur in plants of central Cuba (in the Tope de Collantes, and Pico Potrerillo regions, Prov. Sancti Spíritus; e.g., Acevedo-Rdgz. et al. 5593, Ekman 13999, León LS-18430). These Cuban collections also are distinctive in usually having obvious calyx lobes with evident teeth, while most populations of M. bicolor var. bicolor have lobes that are essentially obsolete and lack calyx teeth, although some plants with well-developed, or at least evident, lobes also have been collected in Pinar del Río (e.g., Britton et al. 7116, Earle 656, Shafer 11787). We note also that some collections from Prov. Sancti Spíritus (e.g., Loma los Helechales, León & Clement LS-5593 and Loma la Gloria, León & Roca LS-8003) have well-developed calyx lobes, but stems with appressed hairs. The Hispaniolan collections, as is typical of M. bicolor, usually have calyx lobes that are obsolete or nearly so, but some have more or less evident lobes and teeth (e.g., Ekman H8722, Jiménez & Ariza Julia 5824, Leonard & Leonard 13629, Valeur 935). Some Hispaniolan specimens also have stems and young leaves with a sticky secretion (as also seen in some western Cuban plants). Most plants of central Cuba (Prov. Villa Clara, Lomas de Banao and Jatibonico in Sancti Spíritus and Cieneguitas, Cienfuegos) are distinctive in their often extremely pale to white-lepidote beneath (e.g., Alain 4013, Bécquer & Veloso HFC-79904, Combs 128, Howard 5500, León LS-11369, and Smith & Hodgdon 3097). On the other hand, material from Cumanayagua, Cienfuegos, are more or less ferrugineous beneath (and these plants also have strongly plinerved leaves; see specimens examined). Leaf shape also varies greatly within M. bicolor var. bicolor, and plants of Hispaniola tend to have leaves more similar to those of M. angustiflora than to those of populations of M. bicolor var. bicolor in western and central Cuba, the Bahamas, or Florida. The abaxial leaf indumentum of stellate-peltate scales, however, clearly distinguishes these Hispaniolan populations from M. angustiflora, which has stellate hairs abaxially. In summary, it is clear that several poorly differentiated geographical races exist within the array of populations here considered as M. bicolor var. bicolor. These are not provided formal nomenclatural recognition because individual specimens are not always clearly diagnosable as to the entity characteristic of each geographical region. These geographically-correlated entities are 1) the populations of southern Florida and the Bahamas, 2) those of Prov. Pinar del Río and the Isla de la Juventud, Cuba (and within this region there seems to be at least two phenetic groups, perhaps ecologically correlated), 3) those of Prov. Villa Clara, Cuba, 4) those of the Tope de Collantes and Pico Potrerillo regions, Prov. Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, 5) those from Cumanayagua, Cienfuegos, Cuba, and 6) those of the island of Hispaniola. The Tope de Collantes/Pico Potrerillo and Hispaniolan entities are the most phenetically divergent. Finally, there are a few collections of M. bicolor from the “Oriente” region, espe