Mosiera longipes

Illustrator:

Copyright:

Shrubs or trees to 4 m; older twigs gray, bronze, or reddish brown, bark smooth or peeling in small flakes, glabrous; young twigs reddish brown, gray, or yellowish green, terete, smooth, glandular, flattened near nodes, glabrous or, sometimes, sparsely to densely puberulent. Leaves fragrant when crushed; blade discolorous when fresh, dark green or yellowish green, elliptic to suborbiculate or ovate, (1.1–)1.8–4(–5.2) × (0.2–)0.8–3(–3.8) cm, ± leathery, base cuneate to rounded, margins sometimes slightly crenulate, slightly revolute when dried, apex acute to rounded, or mucronate or emarginate, surfaces dull abaxially, shiny adaxially, densely glandular, glabrous or, rarely, sparsely pubescent. Peduncles (4–)12–40(–52) ×0.5–1.2 mm, flattened. Inflorescences in leafless nodes or in leaf axils on young shoots, often in opposite pairs on short, leafless shoots or on proximal 1/2 of new leafy shoots, sometimes solitary, glabrous or puberulent; bracteoles 2, caducous or present at anthesis, sometimes shortly petiolate, elliptic to orbiculate, 2–5 × 1–5 mm. Flowers: bud pyriform, ca. 4–5(–6) mm, globose portion 3–4 mm diam.; hypanthium campanulate, 2–3 mm, tube ca. 1 mm, tearing slightly between calyx lobes; calyx lobes ovate to hemiorbiculate, 2.5–3.5 × 3–3.5 mm, apex rounded, surfaces glandular, glabrous or margins ciliate; petals obovate or suborbiculate, 4–6 × 4–6 mm, margins ciliate; placentation axile; ovules multiseriate. Berries 7–10 × 6–8 mm, densely glandular, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely puberulent. Seeds ca. 2 × 1–1.5 mm; seed coat pale yellow, hard, lustrous; operculum present.

Phenology: Flowering and fruiting year-round.
Habitat: Pine hammocks, dry coastal scrub, limestone substrates or dunes.
Elevation: 0–50 m.

Fla., West Indies.

Discussion

Mosiera longipes is listed as threatened in the Preservation of Native Flora of Florida Act, a result of the rapid habitat destruction in southern Florida.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa