Eugenia involucrata De Candolle (1828: 264)

Valdemarin, Karinne Sampaio, Mazine, Fiorella F. & Souza, Vinicius Castro, 2024, Eugenia (Myrtaceae) from Reserva Natural Vale, Espírito Santo, a center of plant endemism in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, Phytotaxa 651 (1), pp. 1-79 : 43-45

25. Eugenia involucrata De Candolle (1828: 264) . ( Fig. 18 .)

Trees 14–30 m tall. Twigs pubescent when young, glabrescent; trichomes brownish. Young leaves hispid, glabrescent; trichomes brownish. Leaves with petioles 5–8 mm long, canaliculate, glabrate or glabrous; blades 50–75 × 25–35 mm, elliptic or narrow-ovate, concolorous when dry, not glaucous and glabrate to glabrous on both surfaces; bases attenuate or acute; apices acuminate or caudate; midvein sulcate adaxially and raised abaxially, glabrous adaxially and glabrate to glabrous abaxially; secondary veins 11–13 at each side, slightly raised on both surfaces, the first pair confluent with the marginal vein; marginal vein one, 1–1.5 mm from the revolute and without thickening margin; oil glands inconspicuous adaxially and raised abaxially. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, raceme with vegetative late proliferation, sessile or with peduncle up to 2 mm long, rachis up to 6 mm long, pubescent; bracts 4–6 mm long, narrow-elliptic or linear, pubescent, persistent at anthesis; 2–4 flowers; pedicels 15–25 mm long, puberulent; bracteoles 7–9.5 mm long, free, deltoid, apices obtuse, puberulent or glabrate, not reflexed, persistent at anthesis; trichomes brownish. Flower buds 5–7 mm in diameter. Flowers with smooth, pubescent hypanthia; calyx lobes 4, free, 6–11 × 4–6 mm, narrow-ovate or ovate, apices acute to obtuse, ciliate; petals 4, oblong, oil glands inconspicuous; staminal ring pubescent; stamens with filaments 13–17 mm, anthers oblong; style 8.5–11 mm, glabrous, stigma punctiform; ovary 2–locular, ovules 31–36 per locule, locule internally glabrous. Fruits not seen.

Specimens examined: — BRAZIL. Espírito Santo: Linhares, Reserva Natural Vale – Aceiro Arlindim , 01 December 2014, fl., D.A. Folli 7311 (CVRD!, RB!, SORO!) ; ibid., Estrada X-1, km 8, talhão 601, 16 November 1977, fl., J. Spada 20/77 (CVRD!, ICN!, RBR!) ; ibid., próximo ao talhão 601, 25 November 1972, fl., J. Spada 92 (RB!) .

Distribution and habitat: — Eugenia involucrata is a widespread species, known from collections from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul, in the Atlantic rainforest and Savanna vegetations of Brazil. In the RNV, the species is found in the Mata Alta vegetation.

Phenology: —Flowering in November through December ( Fig. 4 ).

Taxonomic comments: —The species is assigned to Eugenia sect. Phyllocalyx . Eugenia involucrata is morphologically similar to E. puberula due to its raceme with late vegetative proliferation, showy flowers and deltoid bracteoles. Eugenia involucrata , however, can be distinguished from E. puberula by its twigs pubescent when young, leaf blades with just one marginal vein (vs. twigs glabrate to glabrous when young and two marginal veins), and pedicels 15 mm or longer (vs. shorter than 15 mm). The species is easily distinguished from all other species of the genus in RNV by the combination of its leaves with just one marginal vein and the showy flowers with deltoid bracteoles persistent at anthesis. It is important to mention that the specimens here analyzed present flowers with pubescent hypanthia, contrasting with the reported by Bünger et al. (2020) in their treatment of the section, where E. involucrata has glabrous hypanthia.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Phenological diagram of Eugenia species from Reserva Natural Vale, Espírito Santo, Brazil. Flowering periods are represented by dark red border triangles, fruiting in grey filled triangles, and “n” is the number of observations.

FIGURE 18. Dry specimen of Eugenia involucrata.