Plinia longa Sobral & M.C.Souza, 2016

Sobral, Marcos, Mazine, Fiorella F., Leoni, Lúcio, Souza, Marcelo C. & Melo, Eugênio A. D., 2016, Five new southeastern Brazilian Myrtaceae, Phytotaxa 253 (1), pp. 57-70 : 67-69

5. Plinia longa Sobral & M.C.Souza , sp. nov.

Type:— BRAZIL. Espírito Santo: mun. Governador Lindenberg, 7 November 2007, V. Demuner 4497 (holotype MBML! ; isotype RB! ). Figure 8 .

This species is apparently related to Plinia edulis , from which it is distinguished by its small height (up to 2 m versus up to 20 m in P. edulis ), its oblong blades (vs. lanceolate), which are longer (to 225 × 45 mm vs. to 130 × 50 mm) and narrower (5–6 vs. to 3.5 times longer than wide) and flowers with brown indumentum (vs. white).

Shrub to 2 m. Twigs glabrous, slightly applanate, the internodes 20–40 × 4 mm. Leaves with petioles glabrous, 10–12 × 2–3 mm, strongly canaliculate; blades narrowly oblong, 200–225 × 35–45 mm, 5–5.7 times longer than wide, dull green when dry, slightly discolorous when dry, glabrous, with glandular dots visible only through light, smaller than 0.1 mm in diameter and 30 to 50/mm²; midvein impressed adaxially and strongly raised abaxially; lateral veins 20 to 30 at each side, faintly impressed adaxially and markedly raised abaxially, leaving the midvein at angles 70–80°; marginal vein 2–2.8 mm from the margin, sometimes a second marginal vein to 0.5 mm, the margin itself moderately revolute and with a brown girdle to 0.2 mm wide. Inflorescences cauliflorous, without evident axis, with up to eight flowers; bracts triangular, to 7 × 4 mm, with trichomes to 1 mm abaxially, deciduous; pedicels absent; bracteoles triangular or narrowly triangular, to 4 × 2 mm, with trichomes as the bracts, deciduous at anthesis; flower buds not examined; calyx lobes and ovary externally densely and uniformly covered with brown simple trichomes 1–1.2 mm, the calyx lobes four, irregularly triangular, 2–3 × 3 mm, with the trichomes sometimes united at the tip for up to 2 mm and simulating a longer and narrower linear structure; petals four, elliptic, 1.5–2 × 1–2 mm, ciliate; stamens not counted, 5–6 mm, the anthers globose, to 0.5 × 0.5 mm, with one subapical gland; staminal ring to 2 mm in diameter, glabrous; calyx tube to 3 mm deep, glabrous; style to 8 mm, glabrous; ovary with two locules and two ovules per locule. Fruits not seen.

Distribution, habitat and phenology:— Plinia longa is presently known only from the type collection, from the municipality of Governador Lindenberg, between 420–590 m elev., in the central portion of Espírito Santo, where it was collected in rainforests; flowers were collected in November.

Conservation:—This species was collected in the municipality of Governador Lindenberg, with an area of 359 km 2 ( IBGE 2016b) and from which are registered about 670 plant collections ( INCT 2016, JBRJ 2016), resulting in an average of 1.8 collection/km², a moderate collection effort. Considering this and the scarcity of additional information about the environment of Plinia longa , it seems adequate to score it as DD (Data Deficient) according to IUCN’s conservation criteria ( IUCN 2001).

Affinities:—This species is apparently related to the southern Brazilian Plinia edulis (Vellozo) Sobral (basionym: Eugenia edulis Vellozo [1829: 208] , Sobral 1985: 2; for description see Sobral 2003; type image not available online), from which it is distinguished by the characters given in the diagnosis.

Etymology:—The epithet is derived from the Latin word for “long”, alluding for the long and narrow leaf blades of this species.

Figures

FIGURE 8. Plinia longa—isotype at RB. Insert: detail of inflorescence and flowers (scale: 10 mm).