Eugenia puberula Niedenzu (1893: 82)

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 : 67

42. Eugenia puberula Niedenzu (1893: 82) . ( Fig. 27 .)

Trees 12–26 m tall. Twigs glabrate or glabrous when young, glabrescent; trichomes brownish. Young leaves glabrate or glabrous, glabrescent; trichomes brownish. Leaves with petioles 5.5–7.5 mm long, plane or slightly canaliculate, glabrate; blades 55–95 × 10–25 mm, narrow-elliptic, sometimes narrow-oblanceolate, discolorous when dry, lighter abaxially, not glaucous and glabrous on both surfaces; bases acute or attenuate; apices acuminate or caudate; midvein sulcate adaxially and raised abaxially, glabrous on both surfaces, rare glabrate abaxially; secondary veins 13–20 at each side, slightly raised on both surfaces, the first pair confluent with the marginal vein; marginal veins two, the innermost 1–1.5 mm from the revolute and without thickening margin; oil glands inconspicuous adaxially and slightly raised abaxially. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, raceme with late vegetative proliferation, sessile or with peduncle up to 1 mm long, rachis up to 1 mm long, puberulent or glabrous; bracts not seen; 2–4 flowers; pedicels 3–6.5 mm long, puberulent or glabrous; bracteoles 4–6 mm long, free, deltoid or wide-elliptic, apices obtuse, puberulent, not reflexed, deciduous at anthesis; trichomes brownish. Flower buds 7–9 mm in diameter. Flowers with smooth, pubescent hypanthia; calyx lobes 4, free, 4–7 × 4–7 mm, wide-ovate, apices obtuse or rounded, puberulent; petals 4, obovate, oil glands inconspicuous; staminal ring puberulent; stamens with filaments 5–6 mm, anthers oblong; style 5–7 mm, glabrous, stigma punctiform; ovary 2-locular, ovules 17–19 per locule, locule internally glabrous. Fruits 13–22 × 8–16 mm, ellipsoid, sometimes globose, smooth, puberulent, dark purple when ripe; seed 1 per fruit, ca. 8.5 × 5 mm, ellipsoid, testa smooth.

Specimens examined: — BRAZIL. Espírito Santo: Linhares, Reserva Natural Vale – Estrada Bicuíba , 14 April 2004, fr., G.S. Siqueira 83 (CVRD!, HUFSJ!, RB!, SORO!); Estrada Farinha Seca, 17 May 1978, fl., I.A. Silva 3 (CVRD!, ESA!, RBR!, SORO!); Estrada Gávea, 03 May 1994, fl., D.A. Folli 2296 (CVRD!, HUFSJ!, SORO!); Estrada Mantegueira, 20 July 2004, fr., D.A. Folli 4884 (CVRD!, HUFSJ!, SORO!); Próximo estrada x-1, talhão 506, 23 May 1972, fl., A.M. Lino 56 (CVRD!, RB!) .

Distribution and habitat: — Eugenia puberula is known from collections from the state of Maranhão, Bahia to Rio de Janeiro in the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil. In the RNV, the species is found in the Mata Alta vegetation, where it could grow in the understory or reach the canopy.

Phenology: —Flowering in May; fruiting in April through July ( Fig. 5 ).

Taxonomic comments: —The species is assigned to Eugenia sect. Phyllocalyx . Eugenia puberula is morphologically similar to E. involucrata due to its raceme with late vegetative proliferation, showy flowers and deltoid bracteoles. However, Eugenia puberula can be distinguished from E. involucrata by its twigs glabrate or glabrous when young and two marginal veins (vs. twigs pubescent when young, leaves with just one marginal vein), beyond the pedicels shorter than 15 mm (vs. 15 mm or longer). Some of specimens here examined were previously determined as Eugenia platysema O. Berg (1857: 276) but E. puberula can be distinguish from it by the presence of inflorescences in raceme with late vegetative proliferation, showy flowers, and bracteoles 4–6 mm long and deltoid or wide-ovate (vs. inflorescences in raceme without late vegetative proliferation, small flowers, bracteoles up to 1 mm long and ovate; Sobral 2007, Mazine et al. 2020).

Figures

FIGURE 5. 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 27. Dry specimen of Eugenia puberula.