|
Notes:
This species is characterized by its rather robust habit; its petiolate, obovate to broadly elliptic, somewhat stiff-textured, obtuse to rounded leaves with domatia and also often with the higher-order venation closely reticulated and visible on the lower surface; its rather well developed, shortly bilobed stipules; its pedunculate, often rather congested, cymose inflorescences with generally stout axes; its well developed, shallowly lobed calyx limb; its stout, yellow, well developed corollas; and its somewhat large fruits. Bremekamp noted in the protologue that this species is very similar to Psychotria morley-smithii, which he distinguished by its longer peduncle and petioles, its somewhat stouter inflorescence axes, and its leaves with the higher order venation not as closely reticulated and hardly visible. However, one stem on the holotype specimen of Psychotria distinctinervia has a pair of leaves that show the characters of both species: one petiole here is short, within the range Bremekamp gave for Psychotria distinctinervia, while the other is twice as long and within the range that distinguished Psychotria morley-smithii; and one of the leaves has both venation patterns, closely reticulated and well marked on the basal half of the leaf and barely visible on the apical part. In general species of Psychotria characteristically vary in inflorescence size, robustness, and peduncle length and modern collections show continuous variation in these features. The inflorescences of the type of Psychotria distinctinervia are notably reduced, and further study when more material is available is needed for a final confirmation. However the smallest inflorescence on the type specimen of Psychotria morley-smithii is not much larger than the largest inflorescence on the type of Psychotria distinctinervia, and for now the specimens that key to these two species are all included provisionally within Psychotria distinctinervia.
|