Plinia longa Sobral & M. C. Souza 2016, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Sobral, Marcos
name: Mazine, Fiorella F.
name: Leoni, Lúcio
name: Souza, Marcelo C.
name: Melo, Eugênio A. D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Myrtales
Myrtaceae
Plinia
Plinia longa

description: 5. Plinia longa Sobral & M.C.Souza, sp. nov.
Type:— BRAZIL. Espírito Santo: mun. Governador Lindenberg, 7 November 2007, V. Demuner 4497 (holotype MBML!; isotype RB!). Figure 8.
This species is apparently related to Plinia edulis, from which it is distinguished by its small height (up to 2 m versus up to 20 m in P. edulis), its oblong blades (vs. lanceolate), which are longer (to 225 × 45 mm vs. to 130 × 50 mm) and narrower (5–6 vs. to 3.5 times longer than wide) and flowers with brown indumentum (vs. white).
Shrub to 2 m. Twigs glabrous, slightly applanate, the internodes 20–40 × 4 mm. Leaves with petioles glabrous, 10–12 × 2–3 mm, strongly canaliculate; blades narrowly oblong, 200–225 × 35–45 mm, 5–5.7 times longer than wide, dull green when dry, slightly discolorous when dry, glabrous, with glandular dots visible only through light, smaller than 0.1 mm in diameter and 30 to 50/mm²; midvein impressed adaxially and strongly raised abaxially; lateral veins 20 to 30 at each side, faintly impressed adaxially and markedly raised abaxially, leaving the midvein at angles 70–80°; marginal vein 2–2.8 mm from the margin, sometimes a second marginal vein to 0.5 mm, the margin itself moderately revolute and with a brown girdle to 0.2 mm wide. Inflorescences cauliflorous, without evident axis, with up to eight flowers; bracts triangular, to 7 × 4 mm, with trichomes to 1 mm abaxially, deciduous; pedicels absent; bracteoles triangular or narrowly triangular, to 4 × 2 mm, with trichomes as the bracts, deciduous at anthesis; flower buds not examined; calyx lobes and ovary externally densely and uniformly covered with brown simple trichomes 1–1.2 mm, the calyx lobes four, irregularly triangular, 2–3 × 3 mm, with the trichomes sometimes united at the tip for up to 2 mm and simulating a longer and narrower linear structure; petals four, elliptic, 1.5–2 × 1–2 mm, ciliate; stamens not counted, 5–6 mm, the anthers globose, to 0.5 × 0.5 mm, with one subapical gland; staminal ring to 2 mm in diameter, glabrous; calyx tube to 3 mm deep, glabrous; style to 8 mm, glabrous; ovary with two locules and two ovules per locule. Fruits not seen.
Distribution, habitat and phenology:— Plinia longa is presently known only from the type collection, from the municipality of Governador Lindenberg, between 420–590 m elev., in the central portion of Espírito Santo, where it was collected in rainforests; flowers were collected in November.
Conservation:—This species was collected in the municipality of Governador Lindenberg, with an area of 359 km 2 (IBGE 2016b) and from which are registered about 670 plant collections (INCT 2016, JBRJ 2016), resulting in an average of 1.8 collection/km², a moderate collection effort. Considering this and the scarcity of additional information about the environment of Plinia longa, it seems adequate to score it as DD (Data Deficient) according to IUCN’s conservation criteria (IUCN 2001).
Affinities:—This species is apparently related to the southern Brazilian Plinia edulis (Vellozo) Sobral (basionym: Eugenia edulis Vellozo [1829: 208], Sobral 1985: 2; for description see Sobral 2003; type image not available online), from which it is distinguished by the characters given in the diagnosis.
Etymology:—The epithet is derived from the Latin word for “long”, alluding for the long and narrow leaf blades of this species.
description: Published as part of Sobral, Marcos, Mazine, Fiorella F., Leoni, Lúcio, Souza, Marcelo C. & Melo, Eugênio A. D., 2016, Five new southeastern Brazilian Myrtaceae, pp. 57-70 in Phytotaxa 253 (1) on pages 67-69, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.253.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/13675735