Agarista eucalyptoides (Cham. & Schltdl.) G.Don

  • Description

    Description: Shrub or small tree to ca. 5(-8) m tall, with often contorted trunks and thick, corky, furrowed bark; twigs glabrous to sparsely pubescent, with ± nonchambered pith; buds to ca. 1.5 mm long, leaves revolute. Leaves alternate or subopposite or whorled, often variable in arrangement, even within single twig; coriaceous, ovate to oblong, 2.5-8(-9.3) x 0.8-2.6 cm, base rounded to truncate and often slightly asymmetric, apex acute to acuminate or shortly so, to nearly rounded-mucronate, margin entire and sometimes undulate, plane to very slightly revolute, especially near base, adaxial surface glabrous (sparsely pubescent on midvein), abaxial surface glabrous (very sparsely pubescent on midvein near base), with usually at least few inconspicuous (to conspicuous) glandular dots along midvein; petiole 6-41 mm long, slender, frequently flexuous. Inflorescences axillary racemes to 1-6 cm long; rachis moderately to densely ferrugineous/crisped-pubescent; pedicels 2-6 mm long, sparsely to densely ferrugineous-pubescent; bracteoles 2, opposite to alternate, from nearly basal to near midpoint of pedicel, narrowly triangular, to ca. 1.1 mm long; floral bracts to ca. 1.7 mm long. Flowers with triangular calyx lobes, with acuminate (to acute) apices, 1-1.8 x 0.5-1.2 mm, abaxial surface essentially glabrous; corolla cylindrical, white (to reddish), 6-10.5 x 2.5-5 mm, glabrous; filaments 3-4.5 mm long; anthers 0.8-1.1 mm long; ovary glabrous to sparsely pubescent. Capsules ovoid to short-ovoid, 3-5 x 4-5 mm, placentae subapical; seeds 1.8-2.5 mm long.

    Distribution: SE Brazil (Minas Gerais and adjacent regions of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul) and Uruguay, in cerrado vegetation, open, rocky thickets and thicket margins, or rocky hillsides, at (250-)800-2300 m alt. Flowering chiefly late August through November (December).

    Illustration: Judd (1995), fig. 13.

    Type: Brazil. Rio Grande do Sul, Sellow s.n. (holotype, B, destroyed; frag. of holotype, NY, n.v.; isotypes, BR, n.v., E, G, K).

  • Floras and Monographs

    Agarista eucalyptoides (Cham. & Schltdl.) G.Don: [Article] Luteyn, James L., et al. 1995. Ericaceae, Part II. The Superior-Ovaried Genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae P.P.). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 66: 560.