Agarista G. Don, Gen. Syst.

1. Agarista D. Don ex G. Don, Gen. Syst. 3: 837. 1834. Shrubs to trees; branches glabrous or with glandular or non-glandular trichomes, generally with darkened foveolate glands associated with leaf secondary veins. Leaves mostly alternate, rarely subopposite, often imbricate; petiole robust or slender, sometimes flexible; leaf blades rarely chartaceous, more often subcoriaceous to rigidly coriaceous, flat or conduplicate, margin flat or slightly to strongly revolute, apex often with apical gland. Inflorescence in panicle or raceme, axillary or subterminal, bracteate or not at the base of the inflorescence; bract 1, inconspicuous, bracteoles 2. Bisexual flowers, pentamerous, actinomorphic, diplostemonous, pendent or rarely erect; calyx conate at the base, not fleshy, not accrescent to the fruit, lobes more often short; corolla gamopetalous, urceolate to cylindrical, white, cream, yellow-green, pink, or red, lobes straight or more commonly recurved; stamens 10, equal, erect, filaments flattened, geniculate, more often pilose, anthers bifid, dorsifixed in the lower half, with poricidal dehiscence, truncated thecae, devoid of appendage; ovary superior, pentalocular, multiovulate locules, filiform style, and truncated stigma. Fruit loculicidal capsule, globose or ovoid, woody septa; fusiform seeds. Agarista is a genus of Ericaceae consisting of 33 species (Sampaio et al. 2023) divided into two sections: Agarista sect. Agauria, which comprises only one species, Agarista salicifolia (Lam.) G.Don, distributed in mountainous regions of Central Africa; and Agarista sect. Agarista, which includes the remaining species and has a broader distribution, spanning the United States, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil, with Brazil exhibiting the highest species richness (Judd 1984). In Brazil, 22 species occur, distributed across all regions of the country, with 20 of them being endemic (Sampaio et al. 2023). The recognition of the genus is based on the presence of a superior ovary, gamopetalous corolla, and stamens with geniculate filaments, exhibiting anthers with nonappendiculate and truncated thecae.