Eugenia macrosepala, Duthie. A. Closer, 1879

Singh, Rajeev Kumar, 2024, Nomenclatural and taxonomic notes on Eugenia (Myrtaceae) from India, Phytotaxa 638 (3), pp. 268-276 : 275

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.638.3.6
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13366418
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/287BE672-FF95-2836-8F80-B25D3DA5FCB4
treatment provided by	Felipe (2024-08-02 12:36:28, last updated 2024-11-27 05:13:40)
scientific name	Eugenia macrosepala
status

Treatment

Recognition of Eugenia macrosepala View in CoL as a distinct species

Eugenia macrosepala Duthie (1879: 501) View in CoL , non Mattos (1989: 1), nom. illeg.

Type citation in protologue:—“N. KANARA, Stocks”.

Holotype:— INDIA. Karnataka: North Canara , s.d., J.E. Stocks 20 (K000821512 [digital image!]).

Notes:— Govaerts et al. (2008), POWO (2023), and WCSP (2023) treated Eugenia macrosepala Duthie as a synonym of E. roxburghii DC. , but in Indian floras E. macrosepala is treated as an accepted species ( Saldanha 1996, Kulkarni 2001, Rathakrishnan 2020, Shareef & Kumar 2020). After studies of type specimens, other herbarium specimens and fresh collections from northern Western Ghats, it is found that E. macrosepala ( Figure 4 View FIGURE 4 ) differs from E. roxburghii in having bigger leaves, 6−15 × 2.5−6.0 cm, chartaceous or subcoriaceous, lateral nerves 10−15 pairs (vs. 2.5−7.0 × 1−3 cm, coriaceous, 7−10 pairs in E. roxburghii ), flowers axillary and lateral from the leafless axils, solitary or in pairs, sessile (vs. axillary and terminal, 2−4 together or fascicled cymes, pedicels 0.7−1.5 cm long), bracteoles longer than the calyx lobes (vs. shorter), calyx lobes longer than the petals, lanceolate (vs. shorter, ovate), petals ovate-oblong, pubescent (vs. elliptic, glabrous), drupes 2.5−3.0 cm across, subglobose, pubescent (vs. 1.1−1.4 cm, globose, glabrous), and seeds 1−2 (vs. seeds 2−3). These morphological differences are taxonomically very important to distinguish E. macrosepala as a distinct species.

References

Duthie, J. F. (1879) Myrtaceae. In: Hooker, J. D. (Ed.) The Flora of British India, vol. 2. L. Reeve & Co., London, pp. 462 - 506.

Govaerts, R. H. A., Sobral, M., Ashton, P., Barrie, F., Holst, B. K., Landrum, L. L., Matsumoto, K., Mazine, F. F., Lughadha, E. N., Proenca, C., Soares-Silva, L. H., Wilson, P. G. & Lucas, E. (2008) World Checklist of Myrtaceae. Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 470 pp.

Kulkarni, B. G. (2001) Myrtaceae. In: Singh, N. P., Lakshminarasimhan, P., Karthikeyan, S. & Prasanna, P. V. (Eds.) Flora of Maharashtra State, vol. 2. Botanical Survey of India, Howrah, India, pp. 7 - 16.

POWO (2023) Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available from: http: // www. plantsoftheworldonline. org / (accessed: 15 December 2023).

Rathakrishnan, N. C. (2020) Myrtaceae. In: Mao, A. A. & Dash, S. S. (Eds.) Flowering plants of India an annotated checklist (Dicotyledons), vol. 2. Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata, pp. 529 - 542.

Saldanha, C. J. (1996) Myrtaceae. In: Saldanha, CJ. (Ed.) Flora of Karnataka, vol. 2. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, pp. 23 - 32.

Shareef, S. M. & Kumar, E. S. S. (2020) The genus Eugenia L. (Myrtaceae) in India. Plant Science Today 7: 360 - 370. https: // doi. org / 10.14719 / pst. 2020.7.3.770

WCSP (2023) World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available from: http: // wcsp. science. kew. org (accessed: 7 July 2023).