Coprosma esulcata
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Ordo: Gentianales
Familia: Rubiaceae
Genus: Coprosma
Name
Coprosma esulcata (F. Br.) Fosberg, Brittonia 8: 178. 1956. – Wikispecies link – Pensoft Profile
- Psychotria esulcata F. Br. (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 130: 315. 1935). [Basionym]
Type
Marquesas Islands: Ua Pou: Without further locality, 1000 m, 1921, E. Qualye 1136(holotype: BISH-578803!).
Description
Shrub or small tree 1.5–4 m tall; young stems glabrous. Leaves decussate, thick-coriaceous, blades 6.5–13 × 2.7–6 cm, ellipticoblanceolate, pinnately veined with 8–18 pairs of secondary veins, higher level venation conspicuously reticulate, upper surface glabrous, lower surface strigose along the veins, midrib broad, with a narrow wing, domatia small or sometimes apparently absent, located along midrib near juncture of secondary veins, apex acuminate, base cuneate; petioles 0.4–1.3 cm long, stout, narrowly winged; stipules ca. 3–8 mm long, connate 1/2–4/5 of length, both surfaces glabrous, margins ciliate with reddish brown hairs and dentate with conspicuous colleters, apex obtuse to a conspicuous appendage. Inflorescences axillary with 6(–15) flowers, trichotomously branched, with 1–3 nodes, the uppermost with a 3-flowered cymule, the others with usually only 1–2 flowers developing on each, these 5–6-merous, peduncles finely, sparsely strigulose. Flowers: male flowers with calyx campanulate, ca. 2 mm long, the tube 1 mm long, the lobes 1 mm long, corolla 6–7 mm long, the tube 5 mm long, the lobes ca. 2 mm long, staminal filaments 7 mm long; female flowers with peduncles 2–3 mm long, calyx tubular, 0.4–0.8 mm long, corolla narrowly funnelform, the tube 1.8–2 mm long, the lobes 1.4–1.8 mm long, the styles 9–11 mm long. Fruits ca. 6–7 mm long × 3 mm wide, obovoid-elliptic, ripening bright red or reddish orange, apex with persistent calyx teeth. Pyrenes obovoid-ellipsoid, ca 4 mm long × 2.5-3 mm wide hemispherical in cross-section, smooth, heavily slerified on the edges and on the flat inner face, thin on convex side.
Distribution
Marquesas Islands, scattered to locally common on Ua Pou and a single collection known from Nuku Hiva.
Ecology
This species is known from 770 to 920 m elevations on steep slopes or ridges in cloud-shrouded shrubland and wet forest dominated by Freycinetia impavida (Gaudich. ex Hombr.) B. C. Stone, Pandanus tectorius Parkinson, and Metrosideros collina (J. R. Forst. & G. Forst.) A. Gray.
Specimens Examined
Marquesas Islands: Nuku Hiva. between Taiohae Bay and Hooumi Bay, 900 m, Gagné 1159 (BISH, US). Ua Pou: Teavaituhai, 3000 ft, Mumford & Adamson 642 (BISH), Meyer 2835(PTBG, US); Teavahaakiti, steep slopes of main ridge to S of Oave, N & E facing cliffs between Teavahaakiti & Tekohepu, 2700 ft, Perlman & Wood 15905 (PTBG), 2550 ft, Perlman & Wood 15922 (PTBG, WU); Matahenua, between Oave and Poutetainui, high mountain peaks along main backbone ridge, 899 m, Perlman & Wood 19079(P, PAP, PTBG, US); forested ridge and slopes up to Teavahaakiti, northwest side, 914 m, Wood 10440 (PAP, PTBG, US), Wood 10446 (PTBG, US); central Ua Pou including the summit crest regions around Oave and the near-by peak of Matahenua., 2950-3030 ft, [09°23'454"S, 140°04'433"W], Wood & Perlman 10802 (PAP, PTBG, US); Tekohepo, summit, 2500-3000 ft, [09°24'31"S, 140°04'21"W], Wood & Perlman 6487 (PAP, PTBG), Wood & Perlman 6492 (PTBG).
Conservation status
Following the criteria and categories of IUCN (2001) it is assigned a preliminary status of Endangered (EN): B1, B2b (i–iii): B1 extent of occurrence <5,000 km²; B2: total area of occupancy less than 500 km² (c. 50 km²); B2b (i–iii), habitat continuing decline inferred in (i) extent of occurrence, (ii) areas of occupancy, and area, (iii) extent and/or quality of habitat. The suitable habitat for Coprosma esulcata on Nuku Hiva (c. 340 km²) and Ua Pou (c. 105 km²) is indicated as an endangered environment, threatened by human activity (deforestation and fire), feral animals, and invasive plants, reducing the extent of the forest.
Taxon Treatment
- Wagner, W; Lorence, D; 2011: Revision of Coprosma (Rubiaceae, tribe Anthospermeae) in the Marquesas Islands PhytoKeys, 4: 109-124. doi
