Eugenia sp. A

Byng, James W., Barthelat, Fabien, Snow, Neil & Bernardini, Benedetta, 2016, Revision of Eugenia and Syzygium (Myrtaceae) from the Comoros archipelago, Phytotaxa 252 (3), pp. 163-184 : 174

6. Eugenia sp. A

Small shrubs up to 30 cm; glabrous. Branchlets terete to compressed, 1–2 mm diameter, light brownish, sometimes peeling. Petioles 5–7 mm. Leaves opposite or subopposite, coriaceous, drying light green beneath, green above. Blades 4.5–9 × 2.5–4 cm, elliptic or oblong-elliptic; base attenuate; apex acuminate to subacuminate; secondary vein pairs 7–9 pairs; intramarginal vein prominent, 1–2 mm from the margin. Inflorescences, flowers and fruits not seen.

Notes:— The sterile specimen Byng 113 was collected in the forest of Sohoa (ca. 200 m elevation) on Mayotte growing to a height of about 30 cm. The molecular analysis ( Figure 2 ) places the species in Eugenia in a different clade from the other Comorean Eugenia species sampled, and aligns it with species from Madagascar and the Mascarenes. The species may be more widespread in the Comores and might even be placed with E. pascaliana , but further samples and investigations are needed. The authors would greatly appreciate more material or images.

Specimen examined:— MAYOTTE [ FRANCE]. Sohoa, 14 November 2011, J.W. Byng 113 (K!, P!).

Conservation status:— Data Deficient (DD). The taxon is only known from one locality but its taxonomy, ecology and distribution need to be further investigated.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Maximum likelihood tree for Old World Eugenia, 1366 aligned nucleotides of chloroplast and nuclear DNA. Bootstrap support percentage (BP)> 50 are shown. Comorean samples included are in bold.