Eugenia adenophylla Valdemarin & Mazine

Valdemarin, Karinne Sampaio, Mazine, Fiorella F. & Souza, Vinicius Castro, 2024, Eugenia (Myrtaceae) from Reserva Natural Vale, Espírito Santo, a center of plant endemism in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, Phytotaxa 651 (1), pp. 1-79 : 14-17

2. Eugenia adenophylla Valdemarin & Mazine sp. nov. ( Fig. 6B , 7 .)

Type:— BRAZIL. Espírito Santo: Linhares, Povoação, Fazenda Tapui , 28 July 2016, fl., D.A. Folli 7481 (holotype CVRD!; isotypes RB!, UB) .

Diagnosis: — Eugenia adenophylla is morphologically related to Eugenia laruotteana Cambessèdes (1829: 350) , sharing elliptic or oblong leaf blades, inflorescences in fascicles with late vegetative proliferation, bracteoles linear or narrow-elliptic and deciduous at anthesis, and velutinous and yellowish fruit when ripe. The new species is distinguished from E. laruotteana by its leaf blades with innermost marginal vein 2–6 mm from the margin (vs. 2–3.5 mm) and oil glands raised and dark on both surfaces (vs. oil glands raised but not dark), flowers with pedicels 10–22.5 mm long (vs. usually up to 10 mm long) and calyx lobes puberulent contrasting with the tomentose hypanthia (vs. calyx lobes and hypanthia with velutinous indumentum), and fruits pyriform (vs. globose).

Trees 8–18 m tall. Twigs puberulent or glabrate when young, glabrescent; trichomes light brown. Young leaves puberulent or glabrate, glabrescent; trichomes light brown. Leaves with petioles 7–10 mm long, canaliculate adaxially, puberulent or glabrous; blades 50–90 × 20–44 mm, elliptic or wide-elliptic, discolorous when dry, lighter abaxially, not glaucous and puberulent or glabrous on both surfaces; bases acute, rare obtuse; apices obtuse or acuminate; midvein sulcate adaxially and raised abaxially, glabrate adaxially and puberulent abaxially; secondary veins 10–14 at each side, slightly raised on both surfaces; marginal veins two, the innermost 2–6 mm from the revolute and without thickening margin; oil glands raised and dark on both surfaces. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, fascicle with late vegetative proliferation, sessile or with peduncle up to 1.5 mm long, rachis up to 6 mm long, pubescent or puberulent; bracts 1.5–2 mm long, linear or narrow-lanceolate, pubescent, deciduous at anthesis; 2–8 flowers; pedicels 10–22.5 mm long, puberulent; bracteoles 1.5–2 mm long, free, linear or narrow-elliptic, apices acute, puberulent, not reflexed, deciduous at anthesis; trichomes light brown or whitish. Flower buds 6.5–8 mm in diameter. Flowers with smooth, tomentose hypanthia; calyx lobes 4, free, 3–6 × 3–5 mm, ovate or oblong, apices obtuse or rounded, puberulent; petals not seen; staminal ring puberulent; stamens not seen; style 5–6.5 mm, glabrous, stigma punctiform; ovary 2-locular, ovules 12–22 per locule, locules internally glabrous. Fruits 47–53 × 36–40 mm, pyriform, smooth, velutinous, yellow when ripe; seed 1 per fruit, ca. 33 × 25 mm, ellipsoid, testa smooth.

Paratypes: — BRAZIL. Espírito Santo: Linhares, Reserva Natural Vale – Estrada Flamengo , no final da estrada, 11 May 1994, fr., D.A. Folli 2303 (CVRD!, HUFSJ!, SORO!, UB); Estrada Mantegueira, 28 November 2002, fl., D.A. Folli 4683 (CVRD!, SORO!). Povoação, 04 January 2017, fr., D.A. Folli 7524 (CVRD!, RB!) .

Distribution and habitat: — Eugenia adenophylla is known from collections from the state of Espírito Santo and is probably endemic to the Tabuleiro forest in the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil. The species was collected in three localities in the Linhares municipality, where it is found in the Mata Alta vegetation canopy and the alluvial forests (outside the RNV boundaries).

Phenology: —Flowering in July and November; fruiting in January, and April through May ( Fig. 4 ).

Etymology: —The specific epithet alludes to the showy glandular dots on leaves.

Conservation status: — Eugenia adenophylla seems to have a restricted distribution, known just for the Tabuleiro forest of Espírito Santo. Although most of the localities occur within the RNV, its surroundings are under anthropic pressure (Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais 2017), and the known gatherings could be the only ones remaining. Considering this and the area of occupancy (AOO) of 12 km ², the new species is provisory evaluated as critically endangered (CR) following the IUCN criteria B1ab(i,iii).

Taxonomic comments: —The species can be assigned to Eugenia sect. Pseudeugenia due to its fasciculate inflorescences with late vegetative proliferation, linear to narrow-lanceolate bracteoles that are deciduous at anthesis, tomentose flowers, fruits velutinous and yellow when ripe. Among the species in RNV, Eugenia adenophylla is morphologically similar to E. flavicarpa Valdemarin & Faria (in Valdemarin et al. 2020: 541) by the same feature described above, and can be distinguished by its petiole 7–10 mm long and leaf blades with raised oil glands adaxially (vs. petioles 4–6 mm long and leaf blades with oil glands inconspicuous adaxially in E. flavicarpa ), inflorescences pubescent or puberulent and flowers with pedicels 10–22.5 mm long (vs. inflorescences tomentose and flowers with pedicels of 5–9 mm long), besides the fruits pyriform, 47–53 × 36–40 mm (vs. fruits ellipsoids, sometimes globose, 30–50 × 19–35 mm). Considering other species of Eugenia sect. Pseudeugenia from Atlantic Rainforest, Eugenia adenophylla is similar to E. laruotteana (see key in Valdemarin et al. 2020a) and they are distinguished in the diagnosis.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Phenological diagram of Eugenia species from Reserva Natural Vale, Espírito Santo, Brazil. Flowering periods are represented by dark red border triangles, fruiting in grey filled triangles, and “n” is the number of observations.

FIGURE 6. A. Fruiting branch of Eugenia adenantha (K.S. Valdemarin 917), B. Fruiting branch of E. adenophylla (D.A. Folli 7524, Vale S.A.), C. Fruiting branch of E. arenaria (K.S. Valdemarin 994), D. Fruiting branch of E. arvensis (K.S. Valdemarin 414).

FIGURE 7. Isotype of Eugenia adenophylla Valdemarin & Mazine.