Myrcia ramiflora Sobral, Rigueira & E.Lucas, 2015

Sobral, Marcos, Faria Jr, Jair E. Q., Ibrahim, Marla U., Lucas, Eve J., Rigueira, Dary, Stadnik, Aline & Dcnat-Ufsj, Daniel Villaroel, 2015, Thirteen new Myrtaceae from Bahia, Brazil, Phytotaxa 224 (3), pp. 201-231 : 222-224

11. Myrcia ramiflora Sobral, Rigueira & E.Lucas , sp. nov. Type:— BRAZIL. Bahia: mun. Wenceslau Guimarães, 13º33’S, 39º42’W, 21 January 2011, D. Rigueira et al. 5 (holotype ALCB!, isotype HUFSJ!). Figure 12 .

This species is apparently related to Myrcia hirtiflora and M. racemosa , from which it is distinguished through its densely pilose twigs (versus glabrous or moderately pilose in the other species) larger blades (up to 160 mm vs. up to 120 mm in the other species), ramiflorous inflorescences (vs. axillary or at the apex of branches in the other species), these usually shorter (axis to 50 mm vs. 70 mm or more on the other species, but his character is overlapping) and constantly pauciflorous (with up to five flowers versus with ten or more flowers in the other species), and larger flowers (calyx lobes to 3 mm vs. up to 1.5 mm in the other species).

Tree 5– 9 m. Twigs densely covered with light brown simple trichomes to 0.5 mm, these falling with age; internodes 25–70 × 1–2 mm. Leaves with petioles 3–4 × 1–1.5 mm, pilose as the twigs; blades elliptic to lanceolate, 78–160 × 30–60 mm, 2.4–2.8 times longer than wide, discolorous when dry, lighter abaxially, densely pilose on both sides when young, glabrous adaxially and moderately pilose mostly along the midvein abaxially with age, the trichomes to 0.5 mm; apex acuminate in 5–15 mm, the apex sometimes slightly curved; base cuneate; glandular dots about 0.1 mm in diameter; midvein salient on both sides, more so abaxially; lateral veins 20 to 25 at each side, leaving the midvein at angles 70–80º, moderately raised on both sides; marginal vein about 2 mm from the margin, sometimes a second vein 0.5 mm, the margin itself plane. Inflorescences not ramified, racemiform, with three to seven flowers, these occasionally crowded at the apex, ramiflorous, the axis 13–22 × 0.5–0.8 mm; bracts linear, to 6 × 0.5 mm, deciduous; flowers sessile; bracteoles not seen; flower buds not seen; calyx lobes five, free, triangular, 2.5–3 × 1.5 mm, densely and uniformly covered with white trichomes to 0.2 mm abaxially; petals five, rounded, 2.5–3 × 3 mm, glabrous; stamens 100 to 140, 5–6 mm, the anthers elliptic, 0.5–0.6 × 0.3 mm, eglandular; staminal ring 2–3 mm in diameter, glabrous; calyx tube 0.7–1 mm deep; style 6 mm, glabrous; stigma punctiform; ovary externally pilose as the calyx lobes, with two locules and two ovules per locule. Fruits globose, immature, to 5 mm in diameter, with white trichomes as the flowers; seeds not examined.

Distribution, habitat and phenology:—This species was collected in coastal rainforests from the municipalities of Apuarema and Wenceslau Guimarães, at altitudes about 650 m elev.; flowers were collected in October and November, and immature fruits in February.

Conservation:— Myrcia ramiflora is known from five collections from three municipalities, Apuarema, Jaguaripe, Ubirataia and Wenceslau Guimarães, which are not contiguous; estimate of extent of occurrence via GeoCAT (see Bachman et al. 2011) using specimens with geographical coordinates resulted in an area of less than 1,500 km ², strongly suggestive of an Endangered (EN) status, since it fits criterion B1 (extent of occurrence smaller than 5,000 km ²) for this category according to IUCN criteria ( IUCN 2001); nevertheless, in the lack of additional information on the habitat, necessary for fulfilling other criteria, we must score this species as DD (Data Deficient) according to IUCN conservation criteria ( IUCN 2001).

Affinities:—Some characters of this species, as free calyx lobes, the glabrous staminal ring, calyx tube present and bilocular ovary match the characters used by Lucas et al. (2011) in their conspectus of the genus Myrcia for characterizing “group 9”, which encompass most species formerly included in the Bergian genus Aulomyrcia ( Berg 1855 –1856: 35; presently recognized as section Aulomyrcia (O.Berg) Grisebach ; see Grisebach 1864: 234 and Lucas et al. 2011); among the species of this group, it is apparently close to Myrcia hirtiflora De Candolle (1828: 249 ; type image: M barcode 0136847) and Myrcia racemosa (O.Berg) Kiaerskou (basionym: Aulomyrcia racemosa O. Berg, 1855 –1856: 52; Kiaerskou 1893: 72; type image: K barcode 000344110), both Atlantic rainforest species frequent in southeastern Brazil, with which it is compared in the diagnosis. Curiously, one of the paratypes, Lucas et al. 1181, was recently examined for a phylogenetic study of section Aulomyrcia ( Staggemeier et al. 2015) ; it was identified in this study as Myrcia cf. hirtiflora and is nested in a clade along M. racemosa , an interesting indication of the proximity of these species.

Etymology:—The epithet is allusive to the ramiflorous inflorescences of the species, an uncommon feature in the genus Myrcia .

Paratypes:— BRAZIL. Bahia: mun. Apuarema , 13º53’46” S, 39º41’10” W, 5 March 2013, E. Lucas, N. Biggs, W. C. Fonseca & S. Simões 1181 ( HURB!, K) ; mun. Jaguaripe , 13°10’ S, 39°01’ W, 25 February 2011, D. Rigueira et al. 10 ( ALCB!) ; mun. Ubirataia, mata próxima a Torre, entre o povoado de Mineiros e Algodão , 13°53’28” S, 39°41’27” W, 20 July 2013, L. Y. S. Aona, W. O. Fonseca & S. S. Simões 2826 ( HURB, RB!) ; mun. Wenceslau Guimarães, Estação Ecológica , 13º35’17” S, 39º42’50” W, 480 m elev., 17 October 2012, E. Lucas, W. Milliken, E. Nic Lughadha, A. L. Brito & C. J. Santos 1168 ( HURB!, K) .

Figures

FIGURE 12. Myrcia ramiflora. Holotype.