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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21(2): 288. 1990

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Holotype -- S. A. Mori
Specimen 2: Holotype -- S. A. Mori

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori

Type: French Guiana. Comté River, nr. bridge of Route de I'Est, 45 km S of Cayenne, 26 Jan 1977 (fr), Mori & Veyret 8983 (holotype, NY; isotype, CAY).

Description: Trees, to 15 m tall, slightly buttressed, with knee-like pneumatophores. Bark gray, with lenticels, the inner bark white. Leaves present at anthesis; petioles 10-15 mm long; blades elliptic, 13-20 x 6-8 cm, chartaceous, glabrous, without abaxial punctatations, usually drying a characteristic reddish-brown, the base acute to rounded, the margins entire, the apex acute; secondary veins in 12-14 pairs, the tertiary veins salient on both sides. Inflorescences axillary or infrequently terminal, unbranched, sometimes several clustered in same axil, racemose, the rachis 3-10 cm long, with ferrugineous pubescence, the pedicel rugose, ca. 13 mm long. Flowers 2.5 cm diam.; calyx-lobes 6, narrowly ovate, the lobes 5-5.5 x 2-2.5 mm erect, not imbricate, adaxially slightly concave, abaxially carinate; petals 6, widely obovate, 17-22 x 12-19 mm, white; hypanthium rugose; androecium zygomorphic, the staminal ring with 170 dimorphic stamens, the filaments of outermost thick, curved, ca. 5 mm long, the filaments of innermost slender, nearly straight, 2 mm long, the anthers 1.2 mm long, the hood flat, 20 x 15 mm, pink, the appendages antherless or with a few vestigial anthers, white; ovary 4-locular, the summit umbonate, surmounted by long, obliquely oriented style. Fruits globose to turbinate, ca. 5 (excluding operculum) x 5-7 cm, the calycine ring inserted near middle, the infracalycine zone and operculum covered with white dot-like lenticels, the supracalycine zone free of lenticels, the pericarp 2-3 mm thick, the operculum flat, with slight umbo. Seeds round in lateral outline, usually flat on one side and hemisperical on other, chesnut brown, the few veins flat, pale colored (more salient when dry) , the testa corky; aril, round, very short, white, surrounding short, pale yellow funicle.

Common names: French Guiana: Mahot (a name applied to many species of Lecythis and Eschweilera).

Distribution: Known only from French Guiana.

Ecology: A medium-sized tree of river margins and swamps where it sometimes occurs in dense stands (Oldeman, 1971).

Phenology: Flowers have been collected in Aug and Dec and mature fruits in Jan, Feb, and Mar.

Pollination: No observations recorded. The androecial hood does not appear to produce nectar and there are not enough staminodes on the androecial hood to provide fodder pollen for pollinators. In this clade there are, however, staminodes in the staminal ring but this has not yet been verified for this species.

Dispersal: This species has a very small aril that may be eaten by mammals that in turn disperse the seeds. It also has corky seed coats that could allow the seeds to float away in water currents, however, most of the trees we have observed are found in wet, swampy areas without enough water to produce the currents needed to carry the seeds away from the mother trees.

Predation: No observations recorded.

Field characters: This species is distinguished from all of the other species of Lecythis by the presence of pneumatophores (the only known species of neotropical Lecythidaceae to have them); chartaceous leaf blades that dry reddish-brown; rugose hypanthium persisting on fruits; white petals; androecial hood with mostly vestigial stamens; fruits with conspicuous white lenticels on the part of the pericarp below calycine ring; chesnut brown seeds with nearly plane, pale colored venation when fresh; corky seed coats; short pale yellow funicle; and round, short, white (nearly vestigial) aril.

Taxonomic notes: Lecythis pneumatophora is morphologically similar to L. persistens Aublet from which it differs by a buttressed vs. cylindric trunk, the presence vs. absence of knee-like pneumatophores, chartaceous vs. coriaceous leaves, the near absence of antherodes on the hood appendages, and corky vs. hard seed testa. Oldeman (1971) was the first to discover pneumatophores in plants of this species. He placed it in Eschweilerabut was not able to identify the species. The flowers possess a flat androecial hood and a 4-locular ovary, both features of Lecythis. Oldeman (1971) stated that Symphonia globulifera L. f. only produces pneumatophores when growing on poorly drained soils (a claim not supported by my observations), suggesting that Lecythis pneumatophora may do the same. However, the presence of buttresses, differently textured leaves, and corky seed coat, also support the separation of L. pneumatophora from L. persistens. The outstanding features of this species, pneumatophores and corky seed coat, are adaptations to the riverine habit in which this species is most commonly found.

Conservation: This taxon has not yet been assessed for the IUCN Red List version 2011.2. It does, however, have a limited distrubtion but the wet forested habitats it occurs in have not yet experienced major disturbance.

Uses: None recorded.

Etymology: The epithet refers to the pneumatophores produced by this species.

Source: Based on Mori in Mori & Prance (1990).

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to M.-F. Prévost, M. Richard, and R. H. Ateni J. for allowing the use of some of their field images.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Lecythis pneumatophora S.A.Mori: [Article] Prance, Ghillean T. & Mori, S. A. 1979. Lecythidaceae - Part I. The actinomorphic-flowered New World Lecythidaceae (Asteranthos, Gustavia, Grias, Allantoma & Cariniana). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21: 1-270.