Mecranium axillare (Macfad.) Skean subsp. axillare

Description

Description Author and Date: James D. Skean, Jr., January 2011, based on Skean, J. D., Jr. 1993. Monograph of Mecranium (Melastomataceae-Miconieae). Syst. Bot. Monogr. 39: 1-116.

Description: Shrub or small tree with leaves bearing persistent tufts of hairs in axils of junction of midvein and 2 largest secondary veins on abaxial surface of blade. Internodal grooves of young twigs usually conspicuously pubescent. Leaf blade 5.9-11.4 cm long, 2.3-3.9 cm wide. Petiole 10-29 mm long. Hypanthium 1.4-1.9 mm long. Fig. 18(A, C-D, I).

Habitat and Distribution: Jamaica: low to mid-elevation cloud forests and disturbed areas in the Blue Mountains and the Mt. Diablo region of St. Ann; 825-1600 m. (Fig. 19).

Taxonomy and Systematics: Mecranium axillare subsp. axillare is easily recognized in the Blue Mountains, where it has young twigs that are densely pubescent in the two longitudinal grooves along each internode. Plants from populations near Mt. Diablo in St. Ann Parish usually bear only a few hairs in these grooves on the very youngest growing portions of the twigs, and may appear quite glabrous. In the Port Royal group of the Blue Mountains, M. axillare subsp. axillare occurs sympatrically in the same forests with M. purpurascens and M. virgatum at Hardwar Gap, above Kingston and Newcastle. When I observed the three taxa there in July 1986, M. virgatum was in young fruit, M. purpurascens was in flower bud, and M. axillare was just completing flowering. In this and other localities where the taxa occur together they may be reproductively isolated by different flowering periods. No morphological intermediates between these species from areas of sympatry were observed in the field or in herbarium material. The specimens "intermediate" between M. amygdalinum (=M. axillare) and M. purpurascens cited by Proctor (1972) represent ovate-leaved individuals of M. purpurascens with marsupiform domatia (see discussion under M. purpurascens).

Notes: See additional information: Mecranium axillare (Macfad.) Skean