At the Reserve “Cupeyal del Norte”, in Eastern Cuba, a Planta! expedition follows the trail of three lost species of melastomes and another one perhaps new to science.
Date: 18/02/2019
Project: Lost Melastomes of the Cuban flora.
A rediscovered species of melastomes and another clearly unknown, were the reasons of my first trip to Cupeyal del Norte. I arrived at sunset, one day in November, nearly 30 years after seeing my first melastomatacea as a university student. Accompanied by José Luis Gómez, we were looking for three lost species of this family of plants: Miconia susanne, Miconia munizii and Miconia pseudopinetorum. The only references we had so far were Latin notes of ancient herbarium records.
We could easily recognize the melastomes because the veins of their leaves resemble stairs.