Noteworthy Collections: Jamaica and Dominica

Heterotis rotundifolia (Sm.) Jacq.-F�l. (MELASTOMATACEAE)-JAMAICA, Portland Parish: S foothills of Blue Mountains, N of Bath, at the Bath Fountain, along trail to Bath Hotel, and just above springs along Sulfur River. Disturbed forest, 120 m elev. 15 January 2011, judd 8312 (FLAS, IJ, NY). DOMINICA, St. David Parish: Along road from Pont Casse to Castle Bruce. Lat. 15�23.49'N, Long. 61�18.66'W. Tropical montane rainforest, secondary forest, 430 m elev. 29 May 2000, Penneys 1304 (FLAS, U).

Significance. The collection Judd 8312 represents the first documented naturalized occurrence in Jamaica of this commonly cultivated herbaceous melastome, while the Penneys 1304 specimen represents the first documented naturalized occurrence of the species in the Lesser Antillean island of Dominica. The species, until recently, was commonly known under the name Dissotis rotundifolia (Sm.) Triana, but it is now placed within Heterotis (Almeda 2009). Heterotis rotundifolia is native to tropical Africa but has naturalized in several islands of the South Pacific (United States Forest Service 201 1), Hawaii (Wagner et al. 1990), and tropical areas of Australia and adjacent islands (Hyland et al. 2010). It has not, however, been documented as being widely naturalized in the New World, having previously been reported only from Puerto Rico (Liogier 1995) and Costa Rica (Almeda 2009; specimens Araya et al. 397, Knebel 433, and Mayfleld 1042-27 7 -4SI, all at MO; data available in Tropicos). In Jamaica, WSJ, GMI and JDS observed Heterotis rotundifolia in the vicinity of the stream near the Bath Hotel, and the first two authors also saw it a few miles away, in an open, disturbed area in the vicinity of Hayfield (near the entrance of the Cuna Cuna pass trail; Lat. 17�59'27.4''N and Long. 76�22'52.7''W) at 680 m elev. In the open disturbed areas along the stream behind the Bath Hotel it grows with the following other species of Melastomataceae: Clidemia erythropogon DC, C. hirta (L.) D. Don, Miconia impetiolaris (Sw.) DC, and M. laevigata (L.) DC. The record from Dominica was collected by DSP on a grassy embankment along with Pterolepis glomerata (Rottb.) Miq.

Heterotis rotundifolia (pinklady, Spanish shawl) is an attractive ground cover due to its prostrate habit and large magenta flowers. In Jamaica, the naturalized populations likely originated from ornamental plantings made near Bath Fountain, in an attempt to further beautify this tourist spot. It may have been introduced to the Hayfield region as a garden ornamental via nodal rooting of cuttings made from the plants near the Bath Fountain, and subsequently spread into the surrounding landscape. Heterotis rotundifolia was not included in the treatments of Melastomataceae in the published Floras for either Jamaica (Proctor 1972) or the Lesser Antilles (Howard 1989), possibly indicating that this popular ornamental may only now becoming widespread and subsequently naturalizing in the Neotropics. This taxon was found in Jamaica during the course of fieldwork focused on the systematics of Miconieae (MeIastomataceae), and supported by NSF Grant DEB-0818399. We thank Rebecca Cotteleer for her assistance in the field.

[Reference]

LITERATURE CITED

Almeda, F. 2009. Melastomataceae. p. 164-338. In: Davidse, G, M. Sousa-Sanchez, S. Knapp, and F. Chiang (eds.). Flora Mesoamericana. Volume 4. Universidad Nacional Aut�noma de M�xico, M�xico City, Mexico.

Howard, R.A. 1989. Flora of the Lesser Antilles. Volume 5. Dicotyledoneae - Part 2. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Hyland, B.P.M., T. Whiffin, F.A. Zieh, S. Duffy, B. Gray, R. Elick, F. Venter, and D. Christophel. 2010. Australian tropical rainforest plants, ed. 6, version 6.1. http://keys. trin.org.au:8080/key-server/data/0e0f05040103-430d-8O04-060d0708OdO4/media/Html/ index.html. Center for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Canberra, Australia. Accessed: 22 March 2011.

Liogier, H.A. 1995. Descriptive flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands. Volume 4. Melastomataceae to Lentibulariaceae. Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.

Proctor, G.R. 1972. Melastomataceae. p. 529549. In: Adams, CD. Flowering plants of Jamaica. University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.

United States Forest Service. 2011. Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER), http:// www.hear.org/pier/. Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, Hilo, Hawaii. Accessed: 22 March 2011.

Wagner, W.L., D.R. Herbst, and S.H. Sohmer. 1990. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawai'i. University of Hawaii Press, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawaii.

[Author Affiliation]

Walter S. Judd,1* Gretchen M. Ionta,1 J. Dan Skean, Jr.,2 Keron C. St. E. Campbell,3 and Darin S. Penneys4

1 Department of Biology, 220 Bartram Hall, PO Box 118525, University of Florida, Gainesville,

Florida 32611

2 Albion College, Department of Biology, Albion, Michigan 49224

3 The Institute of Jamaica, Natural History Museum of Jamaica,

10-16 East Street, Kingston, Jamaica

4 Department of Botany, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California 94118

[Author Affiliation]

* email address: wjudd@botany.ufl.edu

Received March 31, 2011; Accepted May 23, 2011.