Mouriri elliptica Mart.

Authority

Morley, Thomas. 1976. Melastomataceae tribe Memecyleae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 15: 1-295. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family

Melastomataceae

Scientific Name

Mouriri elliptica Mart.

Type

Type. C. F. P. von Martius 222 (holotype, BR; isotypes, G-DC, K, L, MO, P, W). Brazil: Mato Grosso: near Cuiabá In flower, Dec. 1832.

Description

Description - Shrub or small tree to 6 m high, often gnarled and tortuous, with a trunk to 20 cm in diam; plants glabrous except for the inflorescence; young twigs terete; bark rather corky, thick, and fissured. Petioles 1.0-2.5 mm long; blades 3.5-14.0 cm long, 2.1-8.5 cm wide, elliptic to ovate-elliptic or oblong-elliptic or narrowly so, sometimes narrowly ovate, acute without cusp to rounded with small cusp or mucro to seldom abruptly short-acuminate or emarginate at the apex, cordate to rounded at base or rarely acute with an included angle of 100°; midrib slightly raised to slightly grooved above, prominent below, rounded at base, sharply 2-angled for most of its length; lateral nerves raised and conspicuous above and somewhat less so below when dry, the larger ones joined by an arcuate submarginal nerve or often in larger leaves by 2 such nerves which are irregularly parallel. Midrib xylem tubular, the tube compressed dorsiventrally; stomatal crypts a highly modified Type II, averaging in a leaf ca 23-55 µ in diam, 54-68 µ high, 86-123 per sq mm (extremes 15-80 µ diam, 50-72 µ high, 66-150 (-200) per sq mm); upper epidermis mostly two cells thick, one cell thick here and there in the same leaf but rarely so; mucilaginous walls present in most of the cells contacting the palisade; hypodermis none; free stone cells present only at base of midvein or petiole in the cortex, the pith weakly to moderately scerified; terminal sclereids typically columnar, sometimes with a small horizontal central body 2-4 times as long as wide, the sclereid rarely branching at the epidermis and then the branches spreading only a very short distance, the sclereids often infrequent or nearly lacking. Inflorescences at leafless nodes of twigs up to 14.0 mm thick and perhaps larger and sometimes in the axils, 1-several per side, each l-5(-7) flowered, 5.2-19.0 mm long to base of farthest pedicel measured along the axes and with 1-4 internodes in that length; bracts ca 1.4 mm long, ovate-triangular, acute, deciduous by anthesis. Axes of inflorescence and pedicels minutely puberulent. True pedicels 1.5-4.0 mm long; calyx including inferior ovary 5.6-7.0 mm long when dry, to ca 7.5 mm long fresh, campanulate; calyx lobes fused to the apex of the flower in bud, enclosing the other parts, splitting apart regularly at anthesis, each then triangular and acute, 3.5-4.5 mm long, 1.8-2.3 mm wide; free hypanthium 1.6-2.0 mm long; calyx circumscissile after anthesis either along a sinuous line below the antepetalous stamens but above the antesepalous ones or below both stamens. Petals white to yellow, elliptic, broadly acute, sessile, ca 3.6-4.1 mm long, 23-2.1 mm wide. Antesepalous filaments ca 4.0 mm long, antepetalous ones ca 4.5 mm long; anthers white to yellow, 3.5-4.4 mm long; sporangia 1.5-1.9 mm long, dehiscing by apical slits; gland 0.2-0.4 mm long, 2.6-3.0 mm from apex of anther when measured from center of gland; cauda 1.6-2.6 mm long. Ovary 2-5-locular; placentae basal in each locule, the ovules borne on all sides of a short basal column, 3 or 4 per placenta, 7-15 in all; style 3.2-4.0 mm long, hooked at tip. Fruits edible, yellowish-green to dark opaque yellow to brown-orange, very broadly obovoid to nearly spherical, 17-27 mm high and 19-32 mm in diam when dry, estimated 19-31 mm high and 22-37 mm in diam when fresh, with a round terminal calyx scar 7.0-15.0 mm in diam; outer layer a hard rind, the soft pulp within sweet and of very good flavor. Seeds 2-4, medium to dark brown, smooth, irregularly obovoid, slightly flattened on the contact faces, 14.0-15.0 mm long, 10.0-11.5 mm wide, 7.0-9.0 mm thick; hilum basal but angled upward, irregularly elliptic, 6.5-7.0 mm long, 4.2-5.5 mm wide.

Discussion

The stomatal crypts of M. elliptica are much like those of M. huberi, while its short anther sporangia and relatively long cauda are suggestive of M. cearensis. Other features are its own such as the mucronate elliptic leaves and broad obovoid fruit.

Common Names

Coroa de Frade, pusa coroa do frade, pusa frade, Púsa, Jaboticaba do campo, jaboticaba do cerrado, xiputa

Distribution

Mato Grosso, Goiás, and Piaui in Brazil. Savannas of the central plateau, an element of the cerrado. Often subject to periodic fires. Reported from 300-800 m elevation, on sandy, sandy clay, or gravelly soil.

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