Volume 7 > Part 3 > Year 2001 > Page 428 > Melastomataceae > Dissochaeta

10. Dissochaeta reformata Blumewfo-0000159433

Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugduno-Batavum 1: 37. 1849.— Anplectrum reformatum (Blume) Triana, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 28: 85. 1871.— Diplectria reformata (Blume) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 1: 246. 1891. Fig. 28.

Accepted Name : Macrolenes pachygyna (Korth.) M.P.Nayar
J. Jap. Bot. 55: 49. 1980.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Scrambling shrub or woody climber, branchlets covered with minute brown stellate hairs, nodes swollen and with distinct interpetiolar ridges. Leaves elliptic to oblong, 8–18 x 3.5–9.5 cm, base rounded to cordate, apex acuminate, tip 0.6–0.8 cm long, lamina with 2–3 pairs of lateral primary veins, mature leaves above and below glabrous except for a pair of hair cushions at the blade base, petioles 1–1.8 cm long, stellate furfuraceous. Inflorescence cymes in the upper leaf axils, rarely terminal, 6–10 cm long and with 3–12 flowers, bracts 5–6 mm long, linear, caducous. Hypanthium campanulate, 10–15 mm long, densely covered with stellate hairs and thickened bristles that themselves bear stellate hairs; calyx lobes triangular, 5–7 mm long, ovary ½ as long as the hypanthium, usually with a ring of bristles on the villous top, stamen pockets extending to the base of the ovary. Petals elliptic to ovate, 10–25 mm long, white with a pinkish hue. Stamens 8, dimorphic, episepalous (outer) ones with L-shaped anthers, about 17 mm long, connective prolonged below the anthers for about 9 mm, basally enlarged and bearing numerous filiform appendages, epipetalous (inner) stamens with S-shaped anthers, ca 10 mm long, connective barely prolonged below the anthers and ventrally with two long filiform appendages, dorsally with two short spurs. Berry dry and somewhat woody, campanulate, 10–12 mm across, covered with the same indumentum as the hypanthium.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Songkhla, Yala, Narathiwat.

Distribution : Malay Peninsula (Lingga Archipelago), Sumatra (types of Macrolenes reticulata and M. ciliatiloba), Java, Borneo (type of Dissochaeta reformata: Korthals s.n. -L).

Ecology : forests margins and gaps at low altitudes.

Vernacular : Phlong khon dao (พลองขนดาว)(Peninsular).

Notes: Dissochaeta reformata closely resembles D. echinulata (cf. note under that species). The name D. reformata is here taken up for Melastoma stellulatum Jack because the epithet stellulata is occupied by D. stellulata Furtado (1963), a synonym of D. rostrata Korth., while the epithet reticulata is occupied by D. reticulata Blume (1831), a synonym of D. velutina Blume.