Nomenclatural and taxonomic notes on Eugenia (Myrtaceae) from India Author Singh, Rajeev Kumar text Phytotaxa 2024 2024-03-05 638 3 268 276 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.638.3.6 journal article 301700 10.11646/phytotaxa.638.3.6 eb5a84ca-37c3-4add-8d61-ca7944470e6e 1179-3163 13213050 Recognition of Eugenia macrosepala as a distinct species Eugenia macrosepala Duthie (1879: 501) , non Mattos (1989: 1), nom. illeg . Type citation in protologue:—“N. KANARA, Stocks”. Holotype :— INDIA . Karnataka : North Canara , s.d. , J.E. Stocks 20 (K000821512 [digital image!]). Notes:— Govaerts et al. (2008) , POWO (2023) , and WCSP (2023) treated Eugenia macrosepala Duthie as a synonym of E. roxburghii DC. , but in Indian floras E. macrosepala is treated as an accepted species ( Saldanha 1996 , Kulkarni 2001 , Rathakrishnan 2020 , Shareef & Kumar 2020 ). After studies of type specimens, other herbarium specimens and fresh collections from northern Western Ghats, it is found that E. macrosepala ( Figure 4 ) differs from E. roxburghii in having bigger leaves, 6−15 × 2.5−6.0 cm, chartaceous or subcoriaceous, lateral nerves 10−15 pairs (vs. 2.5−7.0 × 1−3 cm , coriaceous, 7−10 pairs in E. roxburghii ), flowers axillary and lateral from the leafless axils, solitary or in pairs, sessile (vs. axillary and terminal, 2−4 together or fascicled cymes, pedicels 0.7−1.5 cm long), bracteoles longer than the calyx lobes (vs. shorter), calyx lobes longer than the petals, lanceolate (vs. shorter, ovate), petals ovate-oblong, pubescent (vs. elliptic, glabrous), drupes 2.5−3.0 cm across, subglobose, pubescent (vs. 1.1−1.4 cm , globose, glabrous), and seeds 1−2 (vs. seeds 2−3). These morphological differences are taxonomically very important to distinguish E. macrosepala as a distinct species.