Flora of Dominica, Part 2 - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 77 MYRTACEAE 165
flowers usually in axils of new leaves, 1-3 on slender pedicels
to 3 cm long; disk 2-4 mm wide; fruit globose, 1-seeded, red
or orange-red, to 2 cm wide. (Compiled from McVaugh in
Howard, 1989,5:496.)
Hispaniola to Martinique, the sarne or related species in
northeast South America: known from Dominica only from
Morne Diablotins (Lloyd 910) and Petit Coulibri track from
Soufri5re (Whitefoord 6004).
The Lloyd collection was discussed as E. lambertiana (q.v.)
by McVaugh. The Whitefoord collection was identified by
Landrum as “cf. pseudopsidium.”
It has pedicels >1 cm long. McVaugh cited (in Howard,
1989, 5496) Eugenia megalocarpa Urban (1908, 5444) as a
synonym, citing an isotype (Duss 4160) at NY. An isotype at
US does not look anything like E. pseudopsidium but is more
like Eugenia gryposperma Krug & Urban but with k sessile
leaves rounded at base. The hits are gone but the pedicels are
only 4 mm and on old wood.
Gomidesia lindeniana Berg, 1858:208.
Gomidesia Berg
Gomidesia lindeniana
Shrub or small tree, young parts densely covered with
coppery pubescence; branchlets flattened; leaves strikingly
convex (not flat), elliptic-oblong, acuminate, to 17 cm x 8 cm;
panicles coarse and many-flowered, upper and lower pollen
sacs overlapping about half their length.
Greater Antilles to southeast Brazil; apparently rare in wet
interior of Dominica to 1200 m: Morne Anglais summit slopes
(Ramage s.n., Wilbur 7939, Roseau valley (Duss 2726).
Flowering May-July, fruiting in August.
Urban (1895:588) erroneously cited the Duss collection as
being from Guadeloupe and misidentified it as Myrcia deflexa.
Myrcia A.P. Candolle ex Guillemin
1. Midvein (in dried leaves) convex on upper surface;
hypanthium and floral disk glabrous or essentially so;
M. citruolia
ovary 3-locular ................
1. Midvein impressed or furrowed on upper surface; ovary
2-locular.
2. Floral disk (including stamina1 ring and summit of
ovary) glabrous; hypanthium glabrous or thinly pubescent
with appressed and partly 2-branched hairs; plants
never conspicuously pubescent, usually appearing
glabrous to the unaided eye.
3. Petioles (1.5-)2-3 mm thick, the outer layers soon
becoming pale and corky, cracking and peeling;
lateral veins k impressed above; bracts indurate,
persisting at least through flowering; floral disk
3-3.5 mm wide ............ M. antillana
3. Petioles usually c1.5 cm thick, without pale exfoliat-
ing layers; lateral veins not impressed; bracts falling
before buds open; floral disk 1.5-2 mm wide.
4. Leaves elliptic, usually f. rounded at base and
prolonged at apex, 5-15 cm long; inflorescence
slender and loosely flowered, peduncles and larger
branches to 1.3 mm wide and usually terete
................... M. leptoclada
4. Leaves obovate, usually cuneate to acute at base
and obtuse to rounded at apex, 3-6 cm long:
inflorescence relatively stout, the flowers corymbosely
clustered, peduncles and large branches
1.5-1.5 mm wide, often noticeably flattened
................... M. platyclada
2. Floral disk densely hairy; hypanthium densely pubescent
(some persisting in fruit); plants usually appearing
pubescent.
5. Leaves minutely pebbled beneath, the veinlets depressed;
inflorescence densely scurfy-pubescent with
erect hairs intermingled with minute, pale, inflated
hairs; calyx lobes pubescent on both sides . .....
...................... M. deflexa
5. Leaves smooth or with a raised reticulum of veinlets;
inflorescence not scurfy-pubescent; hairs of hypanthium
stiff, pale and appressed.
6. Branchlets and inflorescence (incl. fruits) densely
velvety pubescent with erect hairs; leaves obtuse or
short-acuminate at apex; calyx lobes pubescent on
both sides; disk 3-4 mm wide . ..........
................... M. ramageana
6. Branchlets and inflorescence thinly strigose to
silky-pilose; fruits glabrous or sparingly strigose;
leaves prominently and often narrowly acuminate;
calyx lobes f. glabrous inside; disk 2-2.5 mm
wide.
7. Hairs of young growth grayish white, sparse,
closely appressed; midvein glabrous above;
petioles 4-7 mm long; leaves mostly acute to
cuneate at base; h it oblong-ellipsoid . ....
..................... M. fallax
7. Hairs of young growth yellowish white, usually
abundant and conspicuous, some or many
loosely spreading; midvein above with a line of
upright bristly hairs; petioles 1-3(-4) mm long;
leaves mostly rounded to f cordate at base; fruit
subglobose . ........... M. splendens
Myrcia antillana
Myrcia antillana McVaugh, 1973:311.
Myrcia edulis var. dominicana Krug & Urban in Urban, 1895582.
Tree with dbh to 30 cm; leaves large (ours) to 24 cm x 11 cm,
obtusely short-acuminate at apex, obtuse to rounded at base;
inflorescence densely puberulous, flowers f sessile; disk
glabrous; fruit globose.