Myrcia cabrerae

Parra-O, Carlos, 2021, Thirteen new species, new records, and a new combination on Colombian Myrtaceae, Phytotaxa 497 (3), pp. 175-210 : 191

7. Myrcia cabrerae C. Parra-O., sp. nov.

Type:— COLOMBIA. Valle del Cauca: “cuenca del río Cali , cercanías de Peñas Blancas”, s.a., 23 January 1963 (buds, fr.), López-Figueiras 8277 (holotype VALLE!, isotype VALLE!). Figure 9 .

Diagnosis:—This species is most similar to Myrcia fasciata McVaugh (1956: 192) , from which it is distinguished by having leaf blade not bullate above (versus leaf blade bullate above in M. fasciata ), inflorescences with 40–100 flowers (vs. with ca. 25 flowers), and calyx lobes incurved in fruit (vs. erect).

Description:—Tree, 8–12 m tall; hairs when present 0.1–0.4 mm, simple, drying whitish to light yellowish; young branches compressed to subcompressed, brown to reddish brown, scarcely to moderately pubescent; old branches terete, yellowish gray, glabrous. Leaf blades elliptic, ovate or broadly ovate, (3.5) 8.5–14.5 × (2) 5.5–8.5 cm, coriaceous, slightly discolorous to discolorous, the upper surface usually glabrous, occasionally slightly pubescent, with impressed glandular dots, the lower surface glabrous to slightly pubescent, with darkish and slightly raised glandular dots; apex obtuse or acuminate, the acumen 4–11 mm; base obtuse or rounded, sometimes truncate; margin entire; midvein flat to convex and glabrous to moderately pubescent above, markedly convex and glabrous to slightly pubescent below; lateral veins 11–17 pairs, flat to slightly convex and usually glabrous (sometimes slightly pubescent) above, convex and glabrous to slightly pubescent below, venation joining in an inframarginal vein at 13–50 mm from margin; petioles 7–20 mm long, brownish to light blackish above and below, slightly rugose, scarcely to densely pubescent, moderately canaliculate adaxially. Inflorescences axillary, paniculate, 9–16 cm long, with 40–100 flowers per panicle, axes compressed to subcompressed, scarcely to densely pubescent, brownish orange to blackish when dry; peduncles 45–90 × 2–3 mm; bracts narrowly ovate or oblong, 2–9 × 0.5–1.7 mm, moderate to densely pubescent abaxially and adaxially, truncate in the base, deciduous; bracteoles 3–4, axillary at base of hypanthium, lanceolate or ovate, 0.2–1 × 0.1–0.5 mm, moderate to densely pubescent, deciduous after anthesis; immature flower buds obovate, 1–1.2 mm long, 1–1.2 mm in diameter, densely pubescent, sessile; open flowers not seen. Fruits globose, sometimes oblate, blackish when dry, 7–11 mm in diameter, usually scarcely pubescent, sometimes slightly pubescent, sessile, occasionally pedicellate, the pedicel subcompressed to terete, 0.4 × 0.4–1 mm, glabrous to slightly pubescent, calyx lobes 5, persistent in fruit, incurved, depressed ovate, 0.8–1.1 × 1.1–1.4 mm, coriaceous, glabrous to scarcely pubescent outside, scarcely to moderately pubescent inside, apex obtuse or subobtuse; seed 1–4, globose to slightly reniform, 7.2–9 × 6.3–6.5 mm, seed coat smooth and somewhat lustrous; embryo myrcioid, with minute blackish glands.

Distribution, habitat and phenology:— Myrcia cabrerae grows in montane forests of Cauca and Valle del Cauca Departments between 1600–2000 m elev.; this species seems to be endemic to Colombia. There is a report ( Cabrera 6437 at CUVC) that fruits of M. cabrerae are eaten by birds and other wild animals; this same source reports that its wood is used as fuel, as construction material for houses and for making tool handles. Myrcia cabrerae has been collected with buds in January and with fruits in January, September, and December.

Conservation:—Despite that this species has been found in different localities of two Departments in Colombia, it is only known for three collections where two of them were collected in almost the same locality; also, these specimens were collected between 40–57 years ago. Based on the information provided above and the lack of additional information about this species, the conservation status of Myrcia cabrerae is assessed as Data Deficient (DD) following IUCN Red List criteria ( IUCN 2019).

Etymology:— Myrcia cabrerae is dedicated to Isidoro Cabrera , a Colombian botanist based at Universidad del Valle and the herbarium CUVC where he was a Botany Professor. Isidoro explored extensively the Colombian territory and he collected more than 22.000 specimens, apart from ca. 10.000 additional collections made in the Orinoco and Amazonian region together with W. R. Philipson, R. E. Schultes, H. García-Barriga, A. F. Pérez and R. Jaramillo- Mejía. He also published studies on the native flora of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina islands (Colombian Caribbean) and its uses.

Affinities:— Myrcia cabrerae is somewhat similar to Myrcia fasciata from Ecuador; the characters that differentiate both species are mentioned in the diagnosis.

Paratypes:— COLOMBIA. Cauca: “carretera entre Piendamó y Popayán ”, 1600–2000 m, 6 December 1980 (fr.), I . Cabrera 6437 (CUVC!). Valle del Cauca: Peñas Blancas , “cuenca del río Pichindé”, 1700–1900 m, 18 September 1977 (fr.), C . Benalcázar & F . Silva 84 ( COL!) .

Figures

FIGURE 9. Myrcia cabrerae. (A) fruiting branch (holotype), (B) leaf apex variation, (C) inflorescence, (D) immature buds, (E) upper view of fruit with remnants of the calyx lobes, (F) embryo.A, E–F from the holotype, B–D from the isotype. Scale bar for B = 1 cm (left) and 5 mm (right), scale bar for C = 2 cm, scale bar for D and E = 2 mm, scale bar for F = 3 mm.