Eugenia altissima Sobral & Faria, 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 : 204-207

2. Eugenia altissima Sobral & Faria , sp. nov. Type:— BRAZIL. Bahia: Amargosa, Serra do Timbó, com acesso pelo Morro Pelado, 13°06’09’’ S, 39 ° 40’39’’ W, 750–835 m, interior de mata parcialmente perturbada, 13 November 2007, A.M. Amorim, J. Jardim, F. Ferreira, R. Perdiz, J. Paixão & L. Gomes 7035 (holotype RB!, isotypes BHCB!, CEPEC!). Figures 2, 3 .

This species is related to Eugenia laruotteana , differing through its higher height (up to 20 m high versus up to 10 m in E. laruotteana ), larger leaves (petioles to 25 mm and blades to 250 × 105 mm vs. petioles to 10 mm and blades to 100 × 30 mm), these abaxially dense pilose (vs. glabrous or scarcely pilose) larger flowers (buds to 15 × 13 mm vs. to 10 × 10 mm) and ovaries with glabrous locule walls (vs. internally pilose).

Tree 18–30 m high. Twigs grey, rugose, with simple trichomes to 0.7 mm when young, with internodes 10– 30 × 2–5 mm. Leaves in the flowering specimen examined young, appearing along with flowers, becoming fully developed while fruiting; petioles 12–25 × 2–4 mm, cylindrical or adaxially plane, sometimes longitudinally wrinkled when dry, with trichomes as the twigs; blades oblong to obovate, 125–250 × 42–105 mm, 2.4–3 times longer than wide, discolorous when dry, the adaxial side somewhat covered with simple grey trichomes to 0.5 mm when young, when adult glabrous and dull brown when dry, the abaxial side olivaceous or grey, dense and uniformly covered by trichomes 0.5 mm; apex acute to widely acute; base cuneate, sometimes decurrent; midvein adaxially sulcate and strongly prominent abaxially; secondary veins 15 to 20 at each side, leaving the midvein at angles 70–80 degrees, visible and moderately prominent on both sides in adult leaves, but scarcely or not visible in young leaves; marginal veins one or two, the inner one 1–8 mm, the outer one, when present, 1.2–2 mm from the strongly revolute margin. Inflorescences auxotelic, with two to six flowers and the axis originating normal leaves after producing the flowers; bracts linear, to 18 × 1.5 mm, densely covered with simple grey trichomes to 0.5 mm; pedicels 22–30 × 1.2–1.5 mm, with trichomes as the bracts; bracteoles not seen, deciduous before anthesis and leaving scars in the pedicels 1–2 mm below the flowers; flower buds pyriform, to 15 × 13 mm, uniformly covered with simple grey trichomes to 0.3 mm, the calyx lobes concealing the globe of the petals; calyx lobes four, subequal, 8–12 × 9–10 mm, triangular to ovate, pilose on both sides; petals four, spathulate, 20–25 × 10–15 mm, adaxially glabrous and abaxially with simple grey trichomes to 0.5 mm; staminal ring rounded to subquadrate, up to 8 mm in diameter, with simple grey trichomes up to 0.2 mm; stamens more than 200 (mostly stamens fallen from the flowers; scars on the staminal ring were counted), 14–20 mm, the anthers elliptic, 1–1.3 × 1 mm, eglandular; style 12–15 mm, glabrous; stigma punctiform, minutely papillose; ovary with two locules and 20 to 25 centrally attached ovules per locule, the locules internally glabrous. Fruits immature, globose, to 20 mm in diameter, uniformly covered with grey trichomes to 0.5 mm; seeds young, not examined.

Distribution, habitat and phenology:—This species is presently known from two municipalities from the Atlantic rainforest domain in central eastern Bahia, Amargosa and Santa Teresinha, where it is a tall forest tree; flowers were collected in November and fruits in April.

Conservation:— Eugenia altissima was collected in Amargosa and Santa Teresinha; they are not contiguous and there exist two municipalities between them, Elísio Medrado and Milagres; these four municipalities occupy an area of 1,647 km 2 ( IBGE 2015) and about 5,050 collections provide from these sites ( CRIA 2015), resulting in an average of 3 collections/km 2, showing a moderate sampling effort. An estimate of its extent of occurrence via GeoCAT (see Bachman et al. 2011) results in 30 km ², what would be indicative of critical risk; nevertheless, we do not have additional information about habitat conditions. Considering this, for the moment we score this species as DD (Data Deficient) according to IUCN conservation criteria ( IUCN 2001).

Affinities:— Eugenia altissima is apparently related to E. laruotteana Cambessèdes (1832 –1833: 350; type image: MPU; no barcode available; see http://www.herbier-mpu.org/zoomify/zoomify.php?fichier=MPU011109), a species from the southeastern Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, from which it can be distinguished through the characters given in the diagnosis. We suggest that E. altissima belongs to clade 4 as depicted by Mazine et al. (2014) in their phylogenetic study of Eugenia ; although flowers are not borne in dichasia and the locules of the ovary are not internally pilose, which are the most characteristic features of this clade, the larger flowers with deciduous bracteoles remind most species of the clade.

Etymology:—The epithet is the Latin word for “very tall”, alluding for the height of this species, reaching 20 m, a height that is very rarely observed in the Brazilian species of the genus Eugenia .

Paratypes:— BRAZIL. Bahia: mun. Santa Teresinha, Serra da Jiboia , 12°52’10’’S, 39°28’18’’ W, 29 November 2004, M. L. C. Neves, J. Jardim, J. Lima & R. M. de Castro 156 ( BHCB!, HUEFS!) ; idem, 12 ° 50’56’’S, 39 ° 28’31’’ W, 7 April 2012, J. E. Q. Faria Jr. & V. Staggemeier 2582 ( HUEFS!, HUFSJ!, RB!, UB!) .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Eugenia altissima. Fruiting specimen (Faria Jr. & Staggemeier 2582; scale: 50 mm).