Disterigma Genus

Disterigma is a genus of flowering shrubs in the heath family Ericaceae, within the order Ericales. It comprises roughly 40 accepted species — GBIF's backbone lists 43 descendant taxa — sometimes referred to collectively as the neotropical blueberries because of their close relationship to the true blueberry genus, Vaccinium, within the same family. The genus name honors its original circumscription as a section of Vaccinium by the German botanist Johann Friedrich Klotzsch, later raised to full genus rank by Franz Niedenzu.

The genus is native to the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico and Central America south through Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, and Bolivia. Species of Disterigma are shrubs adapted to high-elevation habitats, typically found above 2,000 m in montane cloud forests and in páramo — the wet, largely treeless vegetation characteristic of the high northern Andes, sometimes described as tropical "tundra." This distribution places Disterigma among the many Ericaceae genera that have radiated extensively along the cool, humid slopes of the tropical Andes and Central American highlands.

Taxonomically, Disterigma was clarified by a modern systematic revision (Pedraza-Peñalosa, 2009, published in Systematic Botany), which worked through species boundaries in this diverse and previously confusing Andean group. Species recognized in the genus include Disterigma empetrifolium (the type depicted in most reference images), D. acuminatum, D. pilosum, D. fortunense, D. hammelii, D. trimerum, D. utleyorum, D. chocoanum, and D. ulei, among roughly thirty others distributed across the Andes and adjoining Central American cloud forests.