Conostegia
| Notice: | This page is derived from the original publication listed below, whose author(s) should always be credited. Further contributors may edit and improve the content of this page and, consequently, need to be credited as well (see page history). Any assessment of factual correctness requires a careful review of the original article as well as of subsequent contributions.
If you are uncertain whether your planned contribution is correct or not, we suggest that you use the associated discussion page instead of editing the page directly. This page should be cited as follows (rationale):
Citation formats to copy and paste
BibTeX: @article{Kriebel2016PhytoKeys, RIS/ Endnote: TY - JOUR Wikipedia/ Citizendium: <ref name="Kriebel2016PhytoKeys">{{Citation See also the citation download page at the journal. |
Ordo: Myrtales
Familia: Melastomataceae
Name
Conostegia D. Don – Wikispecies link – Pensoft Profile
- Conostegia D. Don, Mem. Wern. Soc. 4: 316. 1823. Lectotype: Conostegia procera (Sw.) D. Don ex DC. (= Melastoma procera Sw.), designated here.
- Synodon Raf., Sylva Tellur. 95. 1838. Lectotype:—Conostegia montana (Sw.) D. Don ex DC.(= Melastoma montana Sw.), designated here.
Description
Small shrubs to medium sized trees with slender and terete to stout and tetragonal branches; branches glabrous to variously pubescent with simple, stellate, stipitate-stellate, lepidote, or highly varying dendritic trichomes, usually the trichomes types not in combination. Twigs with or without nodal lines which can be obscured by the indument. Petiole absent or usually present, in one species (Conostegia bigibbosa) and some populations of another (Conostegia montana) with two tubercles near the apex abaxially. Leaves subisophyllous to isophyllous or rarely anisophyllous (most markedly in Conostegia henripittieri), membranaceous, rarely coriaceous, several species with somewhat leathery texture, particularly the ones with a hypodermis, nerved to strongly plinerved and if the latter, frequently asymmetric, entire to crenate, denticulate or serrate, adaxially usually glabrous, abaxially glabrous to variously pubescent with simple, stellate, stipitate-stellate, lepidote, or highly varying dendritic trichomes, the surface obscured by indument in a few species, all species with tiny glands on the surface, the apex acute to caudate, the base peltate, rounded, cordate, acute or long decurrent, with pouch-like formicaria at the base in two species (Conostegia dentata and Conostegia setosa), with pocket domatia at the base abaxially in three species (Conostegia ecuadorensis, Clidemia hammelii and Conostegia ombrophila), and with evident tuft domatia in one species (Conostegia procera). Inflorescences pseudoaxillary or terminal, erect or deflexed, small dichasia or small to large panicles, few to many flowered, branching at or above the base, in a few cases the branches terminating in bracteate glomerules (i.e. Conostegia monteleagreana), bracts and bracteoles deciduous and sometimes appearing absent, or persistent and especially the bracteoles sometimes forming a nodal collar around the inflorescence branches, accessory branches present especielly in taxa with terminal, paniculate inflorescences. Flowers diplostemonous or pleiostemonous, 4-12-merous; calyx calyptrate or not, if calyptrate with or without calyx teeth and the calyptras varying from very thin to very thick, glabrous to pubescent like the hypanthium and with or without sclereids, if the calyx not calyptrate, fused in some species and rupturing irregularly at anthesis into irregular lobes, in non calyptrate species the calyx lobes mostly inconspicuous and similar to the calyx teeth, not conspicuous except in Conostegia incurva; petals reflexed or generally spreading, linear-oblong to broadly obovate, the apex acute to rounded, evidently clawed at the base at least on one species (Conostegia schlimii), mostly glabrous, in at least one species conspicuously papillose (Conostegia papillopetala), translucent to mostly white, in a few species pink or purple, the petals cells on the adaxial surface mostly rounded in species with colored petals and flattened in species with translucent petals. Stamens 8 to ca. 52, arranged neatly around the style in diplostemonous taxa and less neatly but similarly in most pleiostemonous taxa, a few species with the stamens bent to one side of the flower (i.e., Conostegia fragrantissima and Conostegia pittieri), filaments translucent white to white, with or without an evident geniculation near the apex, the connective not prolonged nor appendaged, the filament anther insertion transitioning smoothly or with a “shoulder” or abrupt step, anthers linear, oblong, elliptic or ovate, apically rounded or acute, basally acute, rounded or sagittate, yellow, less frequently whitish or with pinkish hues, laterally compressed, with druses in the endothecium, the pore oriented totally upward, somewhat ventrally inclined or less frequently dorsally inclined, usually small, broad in one species (Conostegia brenesiana), anther sporangia positioned laterally or more or less superposed. Ovary from almost superior to usually totally inferior, 4–25 locular, the placentas within each locule laminar, triangular or peltate, with or without mucilage inside; the style exserted beyond the stamens or not, cylindrical and linear, to shaped as an inverted crateriform cone, when linear, sometimes gently bending to abruptly bending below the stigma, hollow or with a stele within, the stigma lobed or not, papillose. Berries small to large, mostly purple, sweet and usually pleasant to human taste; seeds mostly numerous ad small (ca. 0.5 mm long), few and large in a few species, largest in Conostegia osaensis (ca. 1.5 mm long), ovoid to pyramidal, sometimes evidently angular, the testa smooth in most species, tuberculate all over in some, and in fewer still, with the tubercles restricted to the angles.
Species concepts in this revision for the most part follow the morphological species concept as defined by Cronquist (1978)[1] in which species are “the smallest groups that are consistently and persistently distinct, and distinguishable by ordinary means.” It is a problematic concept partly because defining “distinct” is subjective and varies across organisms. Nonetheless, it is the most common species concept applied to plants (McDade 1995), and an effort was made to recognize only species that appear distinct. This author views species as hypotheses that are subject to testing. Thus the reader should be aware that some species may someday prove to be synonymous with others, and some species complexes might prove to be made of cryptic species in need of recognition. Properties of other species concepts are desirable, such as defining species based on monophyly (e.g. the phylogenetic species concept), but the lack of enough representative specimens in the phylogenetic analyses of many species, as well as appropriate molecular markers to ascertain clades (species) with confidence, and inherent biological processes such as incomplete lineage sorting, preclude much of its use in the present treatment. In this monograph when a negative measurement is given for the distance between the anther and the stigma, this means that the anthers are below the stigma for that length.
Key to the sections and species of Conostegia
Taxon Treatment
- Kriebel, R; 2016: A Monograph of Conostegia (Melastomataceae, Miconieae) PhytoKeys, (67): 1-326. doi
Other References
- ↑ Cronquist A (1978) Once again, what is a species? In: Romberger J (Ed.) Biosystematics in Agriculture. Allenheld, Osmun and Co Montclair, New Jersey, 3–20.
