Myrcia toledoana

Parra-O, Carlos, 2021, Thirteen new species, new records, and a new combination on Colombian Myrtaceae, Phytotaxa 497 (3), pp. 175-210 : 202-204

13. Myrcia toledoana C. Parra-O., sp. nov.

Type:— COLOMBIA. Norte de Santander: Toledo , “corregimiento Samoré, vereda Limoncito”, 7°04’34.4435’’N, 72°13’28.4657’’W, 675 m, 28 January 2011 (buds, fr.), F. Avila, M. Bravo, M. Chacón & E. Aguillón 2120 (holotype COL 563533 !, isotype COL 563534 !). Figure 15 .

Diagnosis:—This species is most similar to Myrcia insignis McVaugh (1956: 176) E. Lucas & C. E. Wilson (2016: 669) , from which it is distinguished by having dibrachiate hairs (versus simple hairs in M. insignis ), leaf apex caudate, 32–42 mm (vs. short acuminate, 5–15 mm), 32–34 lateral veins (vs. 12–15), and fruits slight to moderately pubescent (vs. densely velutinous).

Description:—Tree, 5 m tall; hairs when present 0.1–0.4 mm, T-shaped asymmetric hairs, drying golden brownish; young branches compressed, light brown, slight to moderately pubescent; old branches not seen. Leaf blades elliptic to broadly elliptic, 34–38 × 17.5–18.5 cm, coriaceous, discolorous, the upper surface glabrous, with slightly raised glandular dots not perceptible, the lower surface usually glabrous, sometimes scarcely pubescent, with slightly raised glandular dots; apex caudate, the cauda 32–42 mm; base rounded or obtuse; margin entire; midvein markedly concave and glabrous above, markedly convex and scarcely to moderately pubescent below; lateral veins 32–34 pairs, flat to slightly concave and glabrous above, convex and glabrous to slightly pubescent below, venation joining in an inframarginal vein at 1.5–3.5 mm from margin; petioles 1.2–1.4 cm long, dark brown above and below, moderately pubescent, canaliculate adaxially. Inflorescences terminal, paniculate, 5 cm long, with 15–20 flowers per panicle, axes compressed, moderately pubescent, brownish orange when dry; peduncles 1 × 0.5 cm; bracts depressed ovate, 1.5 × 2 mm, moderately pubescent abaxially, slight to moderate pubescent adaxially, truncate in the base, persistent; bracteoles 2–3, axillary at base of hypanthium, lanceolate or ovate to broadly ovate, 1–4.5 × 0.6–2.2 mm, moderately pubescent; flower buds obovoid, 3.7–4.5 mm long, 2.3–3 mm in diameter, moderately pubescent, sessile or in a subcompressed pedicel 0.5–0.7 × 0.8–1.2 mm, moderately pubescent; calyx lobes fused on bud, tearing at anthesis in irregular lobes; open flowers not seen. Fruits globose, dark brown to blackish when dry, 1.2–1.7 cm in diameter, slight to moderately pubescent, sessile or pedicellate, the pedicel subcompressed, 1–1.5 × 2–2.3 mm, moderately pubescent, calyx lobes persistent in fruit 6–7, irregular in shape and size, oblong, ovate or depressed ovate, 1.2–2 × 1–3.3 mm, coriaceous, moderately pubescent outside, glabrous to scarcely pubescent inside, apex obtuse or acute, remnant staminal ring on fruit circular, 2.5–3.8 mm, scarcely to moderately pubescent; seed not seen.

Distribution, habitat and phenology:— Myrcia toledoana grows in tropical lowland forests on the eastern slopes of the Eastern Colombian cordillera at 675 m elev., in the Norte de Santander Department; it seems to be endemic to Colombia. This species has been collected with buds and fruits in January.

Conservation:— As Myrcia toledoana is only known by the type and its sole locality, I can only assessed its conservation status for now as Data Deficient, or DD, following IUCN Red List criteria ( IUCN 2019) .

Etymology:—The specific epithet of the new species refers from the type locality in the municipality of Toledo, Department of Norte de Santander, Colombia.

Affinities:— Myrcia toledoana is apparently related to Myrcia insignis , and the characters that differentiate both species are mentioned in the diagnosis. Although flowering specimens of M. toledoana were not found, characters as its T-shaped asymmetric hairs, its closed floral buds and its irregular calyx lobes on the fruit are common to a group of species formerly belonging to the genus Marlierea . Of the Myrcia species that have a close calyx that tears in irregular lobes of different sizes, it is commonly found that the number of such lobes ranges between 4–5; in M. toledoana the calyx tears in 6–7 irregular lobes which is uncommon among the genus.

Figures

FIGURE 15. Myrcia toledoana. (A) fruiting branch, (B) inflorescence and flower buds, (C) upper view of fruit with remnants of the irregular calyx lobes, (D) cross section of fruit showing two locules and abnormally developed seeds. A, C, D from the holotype, B from the isotype. Scale bars for B and D = 1 cm, scale bar for C = 2 mm.