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†
Deceased.
Introduction
The Neotropical genus Mezia Nied. comprises mostly lianas; only M. huberi is a shrub or small tree. Sterile material can often be placed to genus by the distinctive pair of large glands sunken into crypts at the base of the lamina. The flowers, arranged in 4-flowered umbels, have narrow elongate sepals and large yellow petals. Most striking, and diagnostic, is the pair of large cymbiform bracteoles, which terminates the well-developed peduncle; the bracteoles subtend a rudimentary pedicel and enclose the flower bud. The orbicular to oblate samaras, 3–11.5 cm in diameter, have large lateral wings that, with one exception (Mezia mariposa), are confluent at the base; the nut bears one small central dorsal wing, which in many species is flanked by an array of winglets and/or crests.
Mezia is most common in Amazonia but ranges north to Panama; two species are disjunct in eastern Brazil, from Bahia south to Rio de Janeiro and adjacent Minas Gerais (Fig. 1). Most species are known from wet or moist forest. Mezia huberi is found in savannas and adjacent gallery forests, and M. andersonii is reported from dry tropical forest. Because most species are treetop lianas, they are infrequently collected; some are known only from the type or very few collections. The exceptions are Mezia araujoi of south-eastern Brazil, and the widespread M. includens, whose range extends from Panama to Ecuador and Brazil. Mezia andersonii, M. bahiana and M. peruviana are known only in flower, and M. curranii only in fruit. Until the late William R. Anderson added eight species, beginning with his study of the Malpighiaceae of the Guayana highland (1981), Mezia was known only from M. araujoi and M. includens, and even they were often thought conspecific. This revision is based in part on W. R. Anderson's notes for a projected monograph of Mezia. With the five novelties proposed here, Mezia now comprises 15 species. Future fieldwork likely will discover more undescribed species and provide additional collections that will be a source for amplified descriptions and distribution ranges.
Fig. 1.
Distribution of Mezia. See Undetermined Records for notes on collections marked ‘Mezia spp.’
[Figure omitted. See PDF]
Taxonomic History
The earliest description of a species now...