Macleania is a genus of plants in the family Ericaceae.
They are epiphytic or terrestrial shrubs. Alternate leaves, petiolate, coriaceous, pinnatinervias or plinervias. Subfasciculate or racemose inflorescences, axillary or terminal, with few to numerous flowers, bibracteolate pedicels, deciduous bracteoles; hypanthium articulated with the pedicel, cylindrical or campanulate; calyx limb erect and patent, (3–) 5-lobed, lobes subacute and triangular; corolla subcylindrical or elongated urceolate, 5-parted, triangular lobes, acute to subacute; stamens usually 10, equal, usually about half as long as corolla, filaments free or connate, anthers strong with strongly granular thecae, tubules nearly as long as anther sacs, or laterally connate or fused to form a tubule simple, rarely completely free, opening by elongated free or fused slits, introrse; style threadlike and about the same length as the corolla or longer, ovary 5-locular. The fruit is a berry with numerous small seeds.[1]
The genus was described by William Jackson Hooker and published in Icones Plantarum 2:t. 109. 1837, based on a specimen brought from Peru. Johann Friedrich Klotzsch identified ten species in 1851. Later Hooker separated Psammisia from Macleania. Oscar Drude (1891) and William Wright Smith (1942), as well as other botanists, pointed out the remarkable nature of this genus and its relationship with Psammisia. Macleania was named for John Maclean (1786-1857), a Scottish merchant who exported plants from Lima, Peru.[2] [3]
Species include:
| Image | Name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| Macleania alata | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania amplexicaulis | Colombia (Cauca) | |
| Macleania angulata | Peru. | |
| Macleania antioquiae | Colombia. | |
| Macleania benthamiana | Ecuador to Peru. | |
| Macleania bullata | Colombia to Ecuador. | |
| Macleania coccoloboides | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania cordifolia | Ecuador to Peru. | |
| Macleania costeroides | Ecuador (Napo) | |
| Macleania crassa | Colombia (Cauca, Valle del Cauca.) | |
| Macleania dodsonii | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania epiphytica | Panama. | |
| Macleania ericae | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania farinosa | Peru. | |
| Macleania floribunda | Peru. | |
| Macleania hirtiflora | Ecuador, NW. Venezuela | |
| Macleania insignis | S. Mexico to Central America | |
| Macleania loeseneriana | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania macrantha | Colombia to N. Peru. | |
| Macleania maldonadensis | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania mollis | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania penduliflora | Colombia (Antioquia). | |
| Macleania pentaptera | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania poortmannii | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania pubiflora | Colombia (Boyacá, Cauca, Nariño.) | |
| Macleania recumbens | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania robusta | Colombia (Magdalena.) | |
| Macleania rotundifolia | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania rupestris | Nicaragua to Venezuela and Bolivia | |
| Macleania salapa | Ecuador to Peru. | |
| Macleania smithiana | Colombia to Ecuador. | |
| Macleania spectabilis | Colombia. | |
| Macleania stricta | Colombia. | |
| Macleania subsessilis | Ecuador. | |
| Macleania tropica | Colombia. | |