Huberia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Melastomataceae.[1] [2]
Its native range is from Ecuador to Peru, eastern and southern Brazil.[3] [4]
Most are shrubs, the leaves are opposite (arranged), petiolate (has a leaf stalk) and are serrated. It flowers with 3 flowered cymes which have a long stipitate (stalk). The flowers are similar in form to Meriania species, but tetramerous (in four parts). The receptacle (the axis of a flower) is urceolate (shaped like an urn or pitcher) or lageniform (flask-shaped) and narrowed to the neck, sometimes costate alate (ribbed like a wing). The flower has 4 sepals which are broad, and 4 petals which are longer than the calyx and much contorted.It has 8 stamens, which have a dorsal appendage which is less developed. The anthers are incurved and elongated. It has a seed capsule that is 4-valved. The seeds are sometimes imbricate (tiled and overlapping), produced on both sides to an elongated wing.The seeds are also winged and pyramidal (in form).[5]
The genus name of Huberia is in honour of François Huber (1750–1831) a Swiss entomologist who specialized in honey bees, and also his son Jean Pierre Huber.[6] Augustin Pyramus de Candolle was a close friend of Huber and wrote a biographer of him in 1832.[7] [8] The genus was first described and published in Prodr. Vol.3 on page 167 in 1828.
According to Kew:The type species, Huberia semiserrata is listed by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service on 21 March 2005.[9]