Leptecophylla brevistyla (J. W. Moore) C. M. Weiller

Styphelia tameiameiae var. brevistyla (Moore) Grant

Styphelia brevistyla Moore, Bish. Mus. Bull. 102:36. 1933.

DESCRIPTION.—Differs from the typical form in its low habit of growth (40 cm high or less), smaller leaves (6–7.5 × 1.5 mm) with veins not as freely forking (due to the smaller size of the leaves), calyx slightly longer than the corolla-tube, corolla slightly shorter (2.3–2.5 mm) with the tube 1 mm long, and smaller pistil (1.3 mm long, with ovary 0.5 mm high and style 0.9 mm). Flower red, according to St. John.

All of these differences are reductions, which are apparently correlated with the high moor environment of the plant. The interesting thing about the vegetation of this environment is that almost all the species which grow there exhibit this type of reduction.

Moore in describing his new species pointed out four differences between S. brevistyla and S. pomarae, all of which hold, and there is certainly no question about these two plants being different species. The affinities of his plant, however, are not with S. pomarae, but with S. tameiameiae. Two of the ways he gives in which his plant differs from S. pomarae are just the ways in which S. tameiameiae differs from S. pomarae, namely, “leaves without a pronounced tuft of hairs at the apex” and “a relatively shorter corolla.” Moore also states, “smaller narrower leaves,” which is true. The fourth difference—“a style that is shorter than the ovary”—would separate it from both the other species, but this does not hold (cf., the measurements above). Moore must have examined pistils of greater age in which the ovary had grown following fertilization, as he says “ovarium 1 mm. in diametro,” whereas, at anthesis, the ovary is but half that diameter, and the style decidedly longer than the ovary; brevistyla is thus a misnomer.

RANGE.—Raiatea: Temehani Plateau. Moore 106, alt. 470 m, in wet moss, 21 September 1926, flower and fruit (BISH, type, 2 sheets; MIN); Grant 5217, Faaharato, alt. 600 m (1970 ft), high moor, 29 January 1931, sterile (BISH, MIN); St. John 17293, alt. 750 m, high moor, flower and fruit, 5 October 1934 (BISH).