Comprehensive Description
provided by Smithsonian Contributions to Botany
Vaccinium cereum var. raiateense (Moore) Grant
Vaccinium raiateense Moore, Bish. Mus. Bull. 102:35. 1933.
Vaccinium cereum f. eriostemon Skottsberg, pro parte, Acta horti Gothob. 9:190, fig. 17–23. 1934.
DESCRIPTION.—Differs from var. cereum in the pubescent pedicels, from var. pubiflorum in the glabrous perianth, and from both in the prevailingly smaller leaves.
RANGE.—Society Islands: Raiatea: Moore 741, Temehani, alt. 750 m, 15 April 1927, flower (BISH, 2 sheets; MIN).
Skottsberg had concluded that this is not specifically distinct from V. cereum, but some of the features, listed above, seem to warrant recognition as a geographical variety, though Grant suspected they were due to the ecological conditions of the peculiar upland moor habitat in which the plant grows. The slight differences in the measurements given by Moore and Skottsberg result from studying different sheets of the same collection.
- bibliographic citation
- Grant, Martin Lawrence, Fosberg, F. Raymond, and Smith, Howard M. 1974. "Partial Flora of the Society Islands: Ericaceae to Apocynaceae." Smithsonian Contributions to Botany. 1-85. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.17
