Eugenia linaresii

Parra-O, Carlos, 2021, Thirteen new species, new records, and a new combination on Colombian Myrtaceae, Phytotaxa 497 (3), pp. 175-210 : 183-186

4. Eugenia linaresii C. Parra-O., sp. nov.

Type:— COLOMBIA. Boyacá: Santa María, “vereda Ceiba Chiquita, puerto de Aguas Calientes, en la ruta Santa María-San Luis de Gaceno ”, 4°49’47.3’’N, 73°21’26.6’’W, 380–420 m, 12 September 2011 (fr.), J. Betancur, M. González, M. Jaimes & estudiantes Taxonomía Vegetal 15646 (holotype COL!, isotypes CUVC!, HUA!). Figures 3 c-j, 5 .

Diagnosis:—This species is most similar to Eugenia feijoi O. Berg (1857 –1859: 283), from which it is distinguished by its petals 10–12 × 6.5–7.5 mm (versus 1.5–8 × 1.2–5 mm in E. feijoi ), hypanthium ribbed and prolonged above the ovary (vs. smooth and not prolonged), and fruits 3.8–5.7 × 2.8–4 cm (vs. 2–3.5 × 1.5–2.5 cm), these longitudinally ribbed (vs. smooth).

Description:—Treelet or tree, 3–8 m tall; hairs when present 0.1–0.5 mm, simple, appressed, drying golden yellow; young branches compressed to subcompressed, yellowish brown, glabrous, occasionally slightly pubescent; old branches terete, yellowish gray, glabrous. Leaf blades ovate or elliptic, 9.5–29 × 3–10 cm, coriaceous, discolorous, the upper surface glabrous and darkish, with slightly raised and blackish glandular dots, the lower surface glabrous, with raised and blackish glandular dots; apex attenuate or acuminate, the acumen 10–15 mm; base obtuse or subrounded; margin entire and lighter than the leaf blade; midvein elevated into a narrow line and usually glabrous to occasionally slightly puberulous above, markedly convex and usually glabrous to sometimes slightly pubescent below; lateral veins 12–17 pairs, slightly convex to convex and glabrous above, convex and usually glabrous, occasionally slightly pubescent below, venation joining in a not well defined inframarginal vein at 1.5–11 mm from margin; petioles 5–8 mm long, blackish above and below, rugose, usually glabrous, sometimes slightly pubescent, slight to moderately canaliculate adaxially. Inflorescence axillary, abbreviate racemes (sometimes flowers solitary), 1–3 cm long, with 3–11 flowers, the axes compressed, glabrous to slightly pubescent, brownish orange to light brownish when dry; peduncles extremely reduced or shortly developed, when present 1.5–3.5 × 1.5 mm; bracts ovate, narrowly ovate or depressed ovate, 0.5–3 × 0.3–0.8 mm, almost glabrous to scarcely pubescent abaxially, glabrous to scarcely pubescent adaxially, truncate in the base, deciduous; bracteoles 2, axillary at base of hypanthium, ovate, 0.3–1 × 0.4–1 mm, glabrous to scarcely pubescent (especially at the margin), deciduous after anthesis; flower buds globose or ellipsoid, 8.5–13 mm long, 4.5–7.5 mm in diameter, glabrous, in a subcompressed to terete pedicel 5–15 × 0.5–1.5 mm, glabrous; calyx lobes 4, connate in bud except 1–2 mm at tip, hooded, ovate or broadly ovate, 4.5–6.5 × 3.5–5 mm, coriaceous, glabrous and slightly bullate outside, glabrous inside, apex obtuse or subobtuse, whitish outside, brownish inside (in scheda); petals 4, white (in scheda), ovate or ovate-oblong, 10–12 × 6.5–7.5 mm, subcoriaceous, glabrous, apex obtuse, base truncate; hypanthium 3–4 mm in diameter, 8–ribbed, prolonged 2 mm above the ovary, glabrous outside, glabrous inside, disk semi-quadrangular, 3–4 mm, almost glabrous to slightly pubescent; style 5.5–8.5 mm long, glabrous; stamens 150– 170, white (in scheda); filaments 4–7.5 mm, anthers oblong, ocher with black connective when dry, 1–1.5 mm long, sometimes with 1 gland in the base; ovary 1.5–2.5 mm in diameter, 2–locular, 4–10 ovules per locule. Fruits globose or ellipsoid, blackish when dry, 3.8–5.7 × 2.8–4 cm, glabrous, 8–ribbed, with a neck 1.5–6 (12) mm long beneath the persistent calyx; seed 1–2, suboblate or ellipsoid, 2–2.2 × 2 cm, seed coat subcoriaceous; embryo eugenioid with fused cotyledons and partially visible hypocotyl, with minute dark brownish glands.

Distribution, habitat and phenology:— Eugenia linaresii is apparently endemic to Colombia and it grows in lowland and subandean forests of Boyacá, Cundinamarca and Meta Departments between 327–1320 m elev. Eugenia linaresii has been collected with buds and flowers in March, April, and October, and with fruits in March, April, and September.

Conservation:— Eugenia linaresii has been found in different localities of three Departments in Colombia and such localities are separated by a minimum of 110 km; with an extent of occurrence (EOO) of 156.052 km 2 and an area of occupancy (AAO) of 28 km 2, and known from five localities, its conservation status is assessed as Least Concern, or LC, following IUCN Red List criteria ( IUCN 2019).

Etymology:—The specific epithet of the new species honors my colleague and friend Edgar Linares, a Colombian botanist based at the herbarium COL and the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales (National University of Colombia) where he is a Botany Professor and Curator of the Herbarium. Edgar has published outstanding and numerous contributions about taxonomy, ecology and diversity of Colombian bryophytes (specially mosses), as well as in other botanical fields such as floristics, ethnobotany, and economic botany; he is also the most prominent Colombian malacologist. Edgar has inspired during his prolific career of more than 30 years to many generations of botanical and zoological students for study, understand and appreciate the impressive Colombian biodiversity.

Affinities:— Eugenia linaresii is apparently related to E. feijoi , and both species can be differentiated by the characters mentioned in the diagnosis. Eugenia linaresii could be related also to the Eugenia feijoi complex, a group of species characterized by having dibrachiate or laterally attached hairs, the midvein of leave blades elevated into a narrow line above, partially connate calyx-lobes, and elongate and gray anthers ( McVaugh 1956; Holst 2002; Barrie et al. 2016); its members have also dark blades, and the blade margins have a lighter color than the blade when the specimens are dry (R. Flores, personal communication). Recently, Giaretta et al. (2019) found that members of this complex, informally called as the “ Eugenia feijoi group” also have a membranous tissue in the sepals; in E. linaresii a membranous tissue is seen at the tip of the sepals, but not as described by Giaretta et al. (2019). Eugenia linaresii has most of the characters of the Eugenia feijoi complex mentioned above, but neither dibrachiate or laterally attached hairs nor elongate and grey anthers.

Fruits of Eugenia linaresii have a neck beneath the persistent calyx, which is also reported by McVaugh (1969) for E. feijoi . In one specimen (Parra-O. 721, Figure 3 J ) this neck is almost 12 mm, but such long necks have seen only in two specimens (Parra-O. 707, 721) from Santa María (Boyacá), where the type was also collected. Additional flowering and fruiting specimens are in need to study the variation of this structure in E. linaresii , and to analyze its possible size correlation with the prolonged hypanthium on its flowers.

Paratypes:— COLOMBIA. Boyacá: Santa María, “vereda Arrayanes, Puerto de Aguas Calientes, en la ruta a San Luis de Gaceno, cercanías del río Lengupá”, 4°50’N, 73°12’W, 350–450 m, 23 April 2005 (buds, fl.), J. Betancur, A. Zuluaga, Estudiantes sistemática vegetal 11502 (COL!); Santa María, “desviación a mano izquierda en la ruta de Santa María a Mámbita antes del puente sobre el río Garagoa, veredas Ceiba Grande y Charco Largo, poco antes del alto Ceiba Grande”, 4°46.4’N, 73°16.1’W, 600–750 m, 28 September 2009 (fr.), C. Parra-O. 707 (COL!); Santa María, “desviación a mano derecha en la ruta de Santa María a San Luis de Gaceno, puerto de Aguas Calientes, vereda Ceiba Chiquita, caño Las Mollas”, 4°49.2’N, 73°12.4’W, 400–450 m, 16 March 2010 (buds, fl.), C. Parra-O. 720 (COL!, HUA!); ibidem, 4°49.2’N, 73°12.4’W, 400–450 m, 16 March 2010 (fr.), C. Parra-O. 721 (COL!). Cundinamarca: Medina , vereda Guichiral, “carretera Medina-Mesa de Cura, carreteable Medina-Chorrerán”, 560 m, 22 October 2016 (buds, fl.), C. Parra-O. 908 (COL!); Medina , vereda Palmichal, “carreteable aledaño a la finca ‘Puerto Rico’”, 4°26’43.4’’N, 73°20’05.8’’W, 465 m, 4 April 2017 (fl., fr.), C. Parra-O. 942 (COL!); Medina , “límite entre las veredas Gazamumo y Gazatavena, 11 km a Medina desde la carretera que va hacia Bogotá ”, 04.42777N, 073.31259W, 327 m, 4 April 2017 (fr.), C. Parra-O. 943 (COL!). Meta: Villavicencio, “Corregimiento 1, Buenavista, finca ‘La Gloria’”, 4°09’36.2’’N, 75°41’22’’W, 1320 m, 18 April 2011 (fl.), F. Quevedo & O. Perengües 1738 (COL!).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Eugenia cherimolioides. (A) Vegetative branch (C. Parra-O. 224), (B) fruit (C. Parra-O. 224). Eugenia linaresii. (C) fruiting branch (C. Parra-O. 707), (D) flower buds (C. Parra-O. 720), (E) flower remnants (C. Parra-O. 720), (F) early stages of fruit development (C. Parra-O. 942). Photos: C. Parra-O. Scale bar for A and C = 3 cm; scale bar from B, D–F = 1 cm.