Eugenia pseudopsidium Jacq.

Authority

Maguire, Bassett. 1969. The botany of the Guayana Highland-part VIII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 18: 1-290.

Family

Myrtaceae

Scientific Name

Eugenia pseudopsidium Jacq.

Discussion

Eugenia psidioides D C , DC. Prodr. 3: 268. 1828.

West Indian material of Eugenia pseudopsidium is usually, but not always, distinguishable from the continental plant that has been passing as E. compta (for description of the latter see Amshoff, Fl. Suriname 3(2): 135. 1951). The two are alike in having moderately small, subcoriaceous and essentially glabrous leaves with the midvein impressed above; hairs of the branchlets sparse, appressed, pale but with pale reddish bases; the flowers slender-pedicellate in small axihary fascicles; bracteoles triangular, distinct but persistent, usually notably pubescent, and more densely pubescent than the pedicels; hypanthium sessile in the bracteoles, glabrous, shortcampanulate; disk 2.5-3.5 m m wide (usually 3 m m wide or a little more), the staminal ring rufous-hirsutulous; calyx-lobes thin, glabrous on both sides, oblong or long-oval, reflexed at anthesis, the longer ones 3.5-4.5 m m long.

The type-locality of Eugenia pseudopsidium is "in sylvis montosis Martinicae." None of Jacquin's original material is known to exist; apparently none was known to Berg or to Urban, but the identity of the species can be determined pretty surely from the plate published in 1763, which shows a Eugenia with round fruits, relatively large calyx-lobes and long slender pedicels.

Urban (Bot. Jahrb. 19: 647. 1895) distinguished the plant of the Lesser Antilles as Eugenia pseudopsidium var genuina, with calyx-lobes 4-4.5 m m long, and the plant of Puerto Rico as E. pseudopsidium var portoricensis (DC.) Krug & Urb., with calyx-lobes 2-3 m m long. This difference seems not entirely consistent, as an occasional specimen from Puerto Rico has flowers as large as any from the other islands.

West Indian material in general differs from most mainland material in that the leaves are often a little more toward cordate than elliptic; they are a little thicker, with stronger and more prominently reticulate veinlets; they have a tendency (at least in older specimens) to turn reddish in drying; the branchlets are a little more densely strigose; and the fruit is usuahy globose whereas in South American plants it is often a little longer than broad. In other respects I cannot distinguish the two populations.

The type of Eugenia psidioides was collected "in Cayenna" by Patris. The plants much resemble Antillean specimens of E. pseudopsidium, with which the new species was compared by de Candolle (cf Field Mus. neg. 7947). Amshoff (Rec. Trav. Bot Neerl. 42: 23. 1950) believed that the type of E. psidioides represented a distinct species "apparently not recollected," but after study of this same specimen I suppose it is no more than a somewhat thick-leaved individual of E. pseudopsidium. The plant is glabrous except for the short spurs bearing the racemes, and the strigoseshky bracteoles; the fruit is globose, about 1 cm diam, and the calyx-lobes are about 3 m m long and wide.

The type of Eugenia compta, collected "ad margines silvularum insulae Cayenne" by Richard [No. 12, with full notes by Richard], I have seen at Paris; the plant is E. compta in the sense of Amshoff, i.e., as treated in the Flora of Suriname. The types of Berg's two varieties of E. prieurii, which I have also seen at Paris, in my judgment represent the same species. The type of E. prieurii a robusta, collected "in Guyana Gallica (Le Prieur)" (cf Field Mus. neg. 37000), may be designated lectotype of E. prieurii. The type of E. prieurii (i tenuiramis, "in Guyana Batava {Hostmann no. 861)" is from Richard's herbarium, annotated by Berg

The type of Eugenia prieurei Sagot ["Leprieur legit 1838"] is represented at Paris by one sheet bearing the date, and named as above by Sagot. Evidently this belongs to the same species as the type of E. prieurii Berg, but it is another specimen and may represent a different gathering.

Specimens from the interior of Suriname, that have been segregated under the name Eugenia cryptadena (excluding var gracilis, which represents another species) are very like the rest of those cited below, except that the flowers are somewhat smaller; the disk is 2.5-3 m m wide, and the larger calyx-lobes are a little less than 3 m m long. In the type of E. cryptadena the leaves are thickly strewn with dark pitted glands on the upper surface; whether this is a result of the drying method used by the collector, or the immaturity of the leaves, or both, or of other factors, I cannot say. In the other specimens I take to represent E. cryptadena, large translucent glands are numerous in the leaves, but the surface is not pitted. The pellucid dots in the leaves of E. cryptadena, a feature noted by Amshoff, are about as conspicuous as in the other specimens cited below under E. pseudopsidium; Berg noted the same feature in his E. compta and E. prieurii.

A collection from the upper Orinoco lowlands, Williams 15123, would key out in this paper to Eugenia pseudopsidium, but evidently represents some very different species; the plant is glabrous; most of the leaves are rounded at apex, obovate or broadly elliptic, 6-10 cm long, 4-6 cm wide; the midvein is not impressed, but nearly flat or slightly concave on the upper surface; the flowers are in small fascicles, on pedicels up to 1 c m long, with broad persistent bracteoles and the calyx-lobes on the very immature fruit broadly rounded, up to 3 m m long or a little more. Without flowering and fruiting material, it seems impossible to place this plant. V E N E Z U E L A . Amazonas: Tamatama, elev 130 m, 4/5/1952 (past fl), Williams 15123 (F).

Distribution

Venezuela South America| Suriname South America|