Perilimnastes Ridl., J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 79: 70. 1918, emend. Ying Liu

Liu, Ying, Dai, Jin-Hong, Zhuang, Qi-Yuan, Zou, Chun-Yu & Ma, Kai-Nan, 2024, Resurrection of Perilimnastes (Sonerileae, Melastomataceae) with description of a new species P. nana, PhytoKeys 238, pp. 11-31 : 11

Perilimnastes Ridl., J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 79: 70. 1918, emend. Ying Liu

Type.

Perilimnastes fruticosa (Ridl.) Ridl., J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 79: 70, in obs. 1918; Ridley, Fl. Mal. Penins. 1: 773. 1922.

Description.

Erect shrubs, erect/ascending shrublets or caulescent herbs, sometimes with raphides in many parts. Stems terete, obtusely 4-sided or ribbed, with uniseriate or multiseriate, appressed or spreading hairs, rarely glabrous. Leaves opposite, equal, subequal or unequal in a pair, petiolate, rarely sessile (in P. sessilifolia ); leaf blades elliptic, ovate, elliptic-lanceolate, obovate, oblanceolate or suborbicular, submembranous, papery or stiffly papery, 3-7-nerved, base cuneate, acute, rounded, subcordate to broadly cordate, margin entire or inconspicuously serrulate or denticulate. Inflorescences usually terminal (rarely axillary) umbels subtended by two or more bracts, many- to few-flowered, sometimes reduced to a single flower. Flowers 4-merous; hypanthia ± campanulate, cup-shaped or funnel-shaped; calyx lobes triangular, ± attenuate to ligulate or linear; petals white, pink or purplish, obovate, ovate, oblong, or elliptic, more or less oblique, apex acute or acuminate; stamens 8, equal or subequal; anthers isomorphic, yellow, pinkish or purplish, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, curved to ventral side, connectives ventrally inappendiculate and dorsally spurred, or basally forming a collar with two ventral auricles/lobes/ridges and a dorsal spur; ovary half inferior, ovoid, 4-celled, crown of four partly or fully connate lobes; style filiform. Old capsule cup-shaped, campanulate, quadrangular, crown persistent and enlarged, enclosing an obpyramidal space; placental column 4-horned; placentas thready. Seeds numerous, minute, cuneate. (Figs 2 - 4 )

Distribution.

Twenty species and two varieties, eight species (seven endemic) and two varieties in southernmost China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan), eight (seven endemic) in Vietnam, one on the Malay Peninsula and four in Borneo (Fig. 5 ).

Species included in Perilimnastes

Figures

Figure 2. Habitat (A-C) and crystal type (D, E) of Perilimnastes A P. stenophylla B P. elegans C P. melastomatoides D druses of P. multisepala E raphides of P. elegans. Scale bars: 50 μm (D, E).

Figure 4. Inflorescence (A, B), longitudinal section of flower (C, D), anther morphology (E), infructescence (F), and longitudinal sections of young and old capsules (G, H) of Perilimnastes A P. setotheca B P. ternata C P. sessilifolia D P. setotheca E P. elliptica, P. ternata, P. ovalifolia, P. setipetiola, P. multisepala, P. nana, P. sessilifolia and P. stenophylla (from left to right and top to bottom) F P. elliptica G P. ovalifolia H P. ovalifolia. Scale bars: 5 mm (C-E); 3 mm (G, H).

Figure 5. Distribution of Perilimnastes.