Eugenia modesta De Candolle (1828: 279)

Mazine, Fiorella F. & Abstract, Vinicius Castro Souza, 2015, Lectotypifications and a new combination in Eugenia sect. Racemosae (Myrtaceae), Phytotaxa 205 (3), pp. 157-167 : 162

12. Eugenia modesta De Candolle (1828: 279) . Eugenia modesta DC. var. brasiliensis O. Berg in C. F. P. von Martius, Fl. bras. 14(1): 314. 1857, nom. inval.,

Type:— BRAZIL. Bahia: ad flum. Ilheos, s.d., Martius s.n. (holotype M!, isotype F!).

Eugenia moraviana O. Berg (1857: 304) . Type :— BRAZIL?, unknown locality (“via quae ducit ad Moravianos”), unknown collector s.n. (syntype BR-not found; lectotype MEL! ( MEL1007474 ), designated here).

Eugenia racemulosa O. Berg var. parviflora O. Berg (1857: 304) . Type:— BRAZIL, Minas Gerais, Itapanhoacanga, s.d., Sellow s.n. (holotype B†; lectotype P!, designated here; isolectotypes K!, P!).

Eugenia racemulosa O. Berg var. racemulosa (1857: 304). Type:— BRAZIL, Minas Gerais, Itapanhoacanga, s.d., Sellow s.n. (holotype B†; lectotype P!, designated here; isolectotypes K!, P!) (Described as Eugenia racemulosa var. parviflora O. Berg ).

Eugenia racemulosa O. Berg var. grandiflora O. Berg (1857: 304) . Type:— BRAZIL, Minas Gerais, Itapanhoacanga, s.d., Sellow s.n. (holotype B†; lectotype LE! ( LE00007480 ), designated here).

Notes:—Berg (1857) described Eugenia moraviana based in two sheets, one from BR and another from MEL, both with no collector data. The syntype of BR has not been found. The syntype of MEL has been designated here as the lectotype of Eugenia moraviana — it has Berg’s handwriting and the label’s annotation “via quae ducit ad Moravianos”, as refered in the protologue. Berg (1856: 243) cites Brazil as the collection place of the species, although he does not give addtional data.

The holotype of Eugenia racemulosa var. grandiflora (Sellow s.n.) was destroyed in Berlin. The only isotype is the specimen from LE, which is designated here as the lectotype.

Eugenia racemulosa var. racemulosa (described as Eugenia racemulosa var. parviflora ) has a similar situation. But in this case, three sheets have been found—one in herbarium K and two in herbarium P. One of those in P (that has Berg’s handwriting identification) is chosen here as the lectotype.

Several authors ( Legrand & Klein 1969, Bernardi 1985, Rotman 1995, 1999, Soares-Silva 2000) have referred Eugenia paracatuana as a synonym of Eugenia moraviana . The analysis of the type-collections of both names has showed that they are not the same entity. The specimens of E. paracatuana always have flowers arranged in “botryoid” (ended in a flower), hypanthium glabrous and flower bracts generally deciduous. The type-collection of E. moraviana has flowers with hypanthium densely pubescent, racemes never ended in flower, as well as persistent flower bracts. Despite of having leaves with prominent glandular-punctuations above and some trichomes at the midvein of the bracteoles, we believe that E. moraviana is a synonym of Eugenia modesta .

Distribution:— Eugenia modesta are plants from cerrados and “campos rupestres”, known mainly in Espinhaço Range in Minas Gerais and Bahia. A figure of Eugenia modesta can be observed in Moraes & Lombardi (2006) as Eugenia bella Cambessèdes (1833: 262) .