Miconia alpestris Cogn.

  • Family

    Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Miconia alpestris Cogn.

  • Primary Citation

    Bot. Gaz. (Crawfordsville) 20: 288. 1895

  • Type Specimens

    Specimen 1: Isotype -- E. T. Heyde 3334

  • Description

    Description Author and Date: Frank Almeda, based on Almeda, F. (2009). Melastomataceae. In: G. Davidse, M. Sousa-Sânchez, S. Knapp, & F. Chiang (eds.), Flora Mesoamericana: Cucurbitaceae a Polemoniaceae. 4(1): 164-338.

    Type: Holotype: Guatemala, Heyde & Lux 3334 (BR!).

    Description: Shrub 3-5 m tall, the rounded-quadrate uppermost internodes, vegetative buds, young expanding leaf blades, petioles of uppermost leaves, elevated primary veins on abaxial foliar surfaces, and inflorescence branchlets densely to moderately covered with an indument of rusty-brown bran-like hairs and elongate ± flattened irregularly roughened hairs. Leaves of a pair ± equal in size, blades 3-5-nerved or 3-5-plinerved and then with the innermost pair of primaries diverging from the midvein 3-7 mm above the blade base, elliptic, 6.7-17 x 2.6-7 cm, apex acuminate, base acute to obtuse, the margin entire, the abaxial surface sparsely and minutely brown lepidote petioles 1.5-5 cm long. Inflorescence a multiflowered panicle 4-9 cm long; flowers 5-merous on pedicels 1 mm long; the early deciduous bracteoles oblong-elliptic to narrowly obovate, 2-2.5 x 0.25-0.5 mm. Hypanthia sparsely brown-lepidote; calyx tube 0.25 mm long, the calyx lobes oblong-ovate, 0.5 x 0.75 mm; the exterior calyx teeth bluntly triangular and ± callose-thickened, 0.5 mm long and equaling or slightly exceeding the calyx lobes. Petals white, glabrous, obovate, 1.5-2 x 1.5 mm. Anthers isomorphic, 1.75-2 mm long, white, ± cuneate, 4-celled with two ± truncate apical pores; connective elevated into a dorso-basal thickening and an inconspicuous ventro-basal bilobulate prolongation. Style glabrous, 2-2.5 mm long; stigma peltate; ovary 3-locular, 2/3 inferior, apex glabrous, ± truncate to crateriform becoming rounded in fruit; berry ca. 3-4 x 3-4 mm when dry. Seeds ovoid, the testa minutely but distinctly granulate, 0.5 mm long.

    Habitat and Distribution: Uncommon in cloud forest. 2275-2800 m. GUATEMALA (Breedlove 8541, CAS). (Endemic).

    Taxonomy and Systematics: This species may be dioecious like its closest relative, M. hemenostigma, but available collections are insufficient to determine this with certainty.

    Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

  • Sorry, no descriptions available for this record.