taxonID	type	description	language	source
03CF8974FF89611AC0F07F1F963C03A1.taxon	diagnosis	Diagnosis: ― Distinguished from all Gravesia species by the combination of sparingly branched suffrutescent habit; 3 - nerved, coarsely and remotely serrate blade margins at least distally, glabrous adaxially and sparingly beset abaxially with minute brown deciduous granular trichomes and smooth appressed trichomes on the three elevated veins; umbellate inflorescences; flangelike calyx tube, calyx lobes obsolete, calyx teeth 0.25 − 0.50 mm long and barely prolonged beyond calyx tube; and anther connective conspicuously prolonged dorso-basally at the filament insertion into a linear-oblong deflexed or variously coiled appendage 1 − 1.5 mm long.	en	Almeda, Frank, Pacifico, Ricardo (2025): Gravesia gautieri (Melastomataceae: Sonerileae), a new species from northern Madagascar. Phytotaxa 721 (3): 288-294, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8
03CF8974FF89611AC0F07F1F963C03A1.taxon	materials_examined	Type: — MADAGASCAR. Diego-Suarez / Antsiranana: Andrafiamena, forêts aux alentours de’Anjahankely, 12 ° 54 ′ 48 ″ S, 49 ° 20 ′ 11 ″ E, 390 m, 11 November 2010, fl. & fr., L. Gautier, Z. Burivalova & P. Ranirison LG 5413 (holotype: G on 2 sheets [G- 00304219, digital image!]; isotypes: CAS- 1415680!, MO, P, TEF, research herb. of Anjahankely).	en	Almeda, Frank, Pacifico, Ricardo (2025): Gravesia gautieri (Melastomataceae: Sonerileae), a new species from northern Madagascar. Phytotaxa 721 (3): 288-294, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8
03CF8974FF89611AC0F07F1F963C03A1.taxon	description	Sparingly branched suffrutescent herb 20 – 40 cm tall. Distal leafy internodes compressed and rounded, sparingly beset with minute sessile brown glands that are deciduous with age, the defoliated lower internodes irregularly rounded, glabrous and decorticating, the nodes somewhat swollen. Leaves opposite and decussate, isomorphic in size and shape in each pair, widely spreading or somewhat ascending when fresh, becoming chartaceous when dry; petioles 1.0 − 3.5 cm long, canaliculate distally on adaxial surface, beset with minute brown sessile glands and a sparse scattering of smooth ± appressed or ascending trichomes 0.5 mm long; blades bright green adaxially when fresh, markedly discolorous (when dry) with the adaxial surface dark brown and the abaxial surface pale green, 3.6 − 6.1 × 1.1 − 2.3 cm, elliptic to elliptic-obovate or oblanceolate, 3 - nerved, glabrous adaxially and abaxially or sparingly beset abaxially with caducous sessile brown deciduous glands and smooth ± appressed trichomes (0.5 mm long) on the elevated primary and secondary veins, apex acute to subacute, base cuneate varying to obtuse or bluntly acute, blade margins inconspicuously serrulate for much of their length or only along the distal half. Inflorescence a terminal umbel of 9 − 15 flowers but often reduced to anywhere from one to four or five flowers on an erect solitary compressed peduncle 3.0 − 5.2 (− 8.7) mm long, beset with a scattering of minute sessile brown glands; pedicels 5 − 10 mm long, variously beset with an inconspicuous indumentum like that of the peduncle, the clustered sessile subtending bracteoles 1.0 × 0.5 mm, bluntly triangular to somewhat oblong, venation not evident, apex obtuse to rounded, with sparse glandular indumentum like the pedicels, the margins entire. Flowers (4 –) 5 - merous and diplostemonous; hypanthia (at anthesis) 3 – 4 mm long to the torus and 4 – 5 mm wide at the widest point, turbinate to infundibuliform, ± terete and ecostate, essentially glabrous or sparingly beset with inconspicuous sessile brown glands toward the base; calyx tube well developed and flangelike, 1 mm long; calyx lobes obsolete, calyx teeth (4 –) 5, 0.25 − 0.50 × 0.25 – 0.50 mm, conspicuous, barely prolonged beyond calyx tube, laterally ± compressed when fresh but appearing knobby and callose-thickened when dry. Petals 10 – 14 × 7 – 8.5 mm, elliptic-ovate to elliptic-obovate, bluntly apiculate at the apex, magenta, entire and eciliate. Stamens (8 –) 10, isomorphic in size and shape, ± erect and commonly clustered in a position opposing the style at anthesis; filaments 4 – 5 mm long, pink, compressed, glabrous; thecae 3.0 – 3.5 × 1 mm, yellow, oblong, somewhat laterally compressed, the apical pore ventrally inclined, connective conspicuously thickened dorsally and prolonged dorso-basally at the filament insertion into a subulate deflexed or variously coiled yellow appendage 1.0 – 1.5 mm long. Ovary (at anthesis) 1.0 × 1.5 mm, elliptic-ovate, glabrous, free, (4 –) 5 - locular, apex crowned by (4 –) 5 erect flattened apically lobed-lacerate scales ca. 1 mm long; style 8 – 9 × 0.5 mm, white, terete, ± erect or declinate, glabrous and curved distally below the punctiform stigma. Mature capsules and seeds not seen.	en	Almeda, Frank, Pacifico, Ricardo (2025): Gravesia gautieri (Melastomataceae: Sonerileae), a new species from northern Madagascar. Phytotaxa 721 (3): 288-294, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8
03CF8974FF89611AC0F07F1F963C03A1.taxon	biology_ecology	Phenology: — The type specimens, which were collected in November, are in flower and young fruit. Habitat and distribution: — Known only from a riverbed in low-elevation (390 m) humid semi-deciduous forest in the Andrafiamena-Andavakoera protected area in far northern Madagascar (Figure 4).	en	Almeda, Frank, Pacifico, Ricardo (2025): Gravesia gautieri (Melastomataceae: Sonerileae), a new species from northern Madagascar. Phytotaxa 721 (3): 288-294, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8
03CF8974FF89611AC0F07F1F963C03A1.taxon	conservation	Conservation status: — Because Gravesia gautieri is known only from the type – gathering in the Andrafiamena-Andavakoera protected area, we were not able to calculate EOO or AOO values using GeoCAT (Bachmann et al. 2011). Until the species is better collected we recommend a status of Data Deficient (DD) based on IUCN guidelines (2024). The protected area, which was established by Decree No. 2015 - 761 on April 28, 2015, encompasses 73,319 hectares and consists mostly of altered landscapes and secondary habitats including secondary forests, thickets, scrub formations, and grasslands that are burned seasonally (Goodman et al. 2022; Gautier et al. 2025; Tahinarivony & Gautier 2025). Because this new species was collected in a riverbed in dense evergreen forest on sandstone, it appears to survive in a relict habitat island of limited extent. The ecological connectivity of this habitat also appears to be facing future fragmentation driven by activities such as mining, agriculture, livestock farming, bushfires, charcoal production, and logging (Tahinarivony & Gautier 2025).	en	Almeda, Frank, Pacifico, Ricardo (2025): Gravesia gautieri (Melastomataceae: Sonerileae), a new species from northern Madagascar. Phytotaxa 721 (3): 288-294, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8
03CF8974FF89611AC0F07F1F963C03A1.taxon	etymology	Etymology: — The epithet for this species honors our colleague, Laurent Gautier (b. 1960), primary collector of the type, dedicated student of the Madagascar flora and Sapotaceae, and author of many important research contributions. We also salute him for his long-time leadership at the herbarium of the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève, Switzerland.	en	Almeda, Frank, Pacifico, Ricardo (2025): Gravesia gautieri (Melastomataceae: Sonerileae), a new species from northern Madagascar. Phytotaxa 721 (3): 288-294, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8
03CF8974FF89611AC0F07F1F963C03A1.taxon	discussion	Discussion: — Perrier de la Bâthie’s (1932, 1951) infrageneric classification of Gravesia recognizes three subgenera. The morphologically diverse subgenus Gravesia, to which he assigned over 100 described species, was further divided into four sections largely based on habit and inflorescence architecture. The taxonomy of Gravesia in Madagascar has received little attention since Perrier de la Bâthie’s treatment of the genus and the monophyly of its infrageneric groupings remain to be tested in a molecular phylogenetic context. We tentatively assign G. gautieri to subgenus Gravesia section Primuloides because of its umbelliform inflorescence borne on a common elongate peduncle that is longer than the pedicels, hypanthia that are not contracted apically, presence of dorso-basal staminal appendages, and perennial subcaulescent habit with developed stems and leaves that are distant from one another. Gravesia gautieri does not match any of the 44 species that Perrier de la Bâthie (1951) assigned to this section. It keys unsatisfactorily to Gravesia baronii H. Perrier (1945: 97) because of its modally 5 - merous flowers, umbelliform inflorescence, small bracteoles, spurlike staminal appendages, and calyx lobes with evident teeth (Figs. 1 A, B, H, J). Both species share the minute brown granular trichomes on vegetative parts that Perrier de la Bâthie (1951) described as tannin hairs, the long petiolate leaves, and the dorso-basally appendiculate anthers. Gravesia baronii differs in many diagnostic characters. It has narrowly lanceolate-linear leaf blades 5 – 9 cm long that are long attenuate (vs. elliptic to elliptic-obovate or oblanceolate blades 3.6 – 6.1 cm that are acute to subacute at the apex), 5 - nerved blades that are ciliate-serrulate (vs. 3 - nerved blades that are coarsely and remotely serrate at least distally), and short pedunculate (1.5 – 2.5 cm) umbellate inflorescences of 3 – 7 flowers (vs. long pedunculate [3 – 5.2 (– 8.7) cm] umbellate inflorescences of 9 – 15 flowers). The hypanthia of G. baronii are ± terete but distinctly 5 - costate and have well developed ovate-oblong calyx lobes that are beset with spreading gland-tipped trichomes 1 mm long whereas those of G. gautieri are terete and ecostate, and only have a glabrous flangelike calyx tube that lacks developed calyx lobes. The hypanthia of both species have the minute brown granular trichomes but they are sparse and only developed toward the base of the hypanthia in G. gautieri whereas they are more abundant and found on the calyx lobes and hypanthial surfaces of G. baronii. The calyx teeth of G. baronii are deltoid and 1 mm long, but the teeth are minute (0.25 – 0.5 mm) in G. gautieri and only evident as callose thickenings. There are also some metric differences in the length of the anthers, dorso-basal anther appendages, and style. The anthers of G. baronii are 1.8 × 0.6 mm (vs. 3 – 3.5 × 1 mm), the appendages are 0.3 mm long (vs. 1 – 1.5 mm), and the style is 5 mm long (vs. 8 – 9 mm long). Additional collections of both species will be needed to confirm whether these differences are consistent and diagnostic. Among other species of Gravesia section Primuloides, our new species is superficially reminiscent of G. angustifolia Cogniaux (1891: 522) in overall habit and long petioles. This latter species is readily separated by its 3 – 5 - plinerved leaf blades, and copiously spreading smooth trichomes on the internodes, petioles, and inflorescence axes. Its umbellate inflorescence is fewer flowered (1 – 3 fl.), the leaf blades have distinctly rounded bases and undulatedentate margins, the hypanthia are copiously covered with spreading eglandular trichomes, the calyx lobes are well developed and toothlike, and the petals are attenuate apically.	en	Almeda, Frank, Pacifico, Ricardo (2025): Gravesia gautieri (Melastomataceae: Sonerileae), a new species from northern Madagascar. Phytotaxa 721 (3): 288-294, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.721.3.8
