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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Pflanzenr. (Engler) IV, 219a: 51. 1939

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Probable isotype -- W. A. Ducke
Specimen 2: Type -- W. A. Ducke
Specimen 3: Isolectotype -- W. A. Ducke

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori and Ghillean T. Prance

Type: Type. Brazil. Brazil. Pará: Rio Trombetas, Castanhal do Jacaré, 11 Jan 1927 (fl), Ducke RB.23959 (holotype, B, not found; lectotype, RB, designated Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21(11). 1990, photo NY; isolectotypes, IAN, photo IAN at NY, INPA, K, NY, RB-2 sheets, U).

Description: Canopy trees, to 30 m. Twigs 2.5-4 mm diam., with horizontally oriented cracks. Bark gray to brown, smooth, scalloped, not fissured, the outer bark thin, the inner bark thick, red. Leaves not deciduous just before flowering; petioles 10-18 mm long; blades elliptic, 10-15.5 x 4.5-7 cm, glabrous, coriaceous, the base obtuse to rounded, the margins minutely crenulate to crenulate, the apex acuminate; secondary veins in 12-16 pairs. Inflorescences terminal, paniculate arrangement of racemes with two orders of branching, to 25 x 15 cm, all rachises ferrugineous, with horizontally oriented squamulae; pedicel subsessile, jointed, the lower part persisting as a knob 1 mm long after flowers fall. Flowers 2-3 cm diam.; calyx of 6, broadly triangular lobes, not imbricate at bases, acute at apices, 1.3-1.5 x 23.3 mm; petals 6, broadly obovate to suborbicular, 8.5-14 x 8-11 mm, pink, red, or dark purple; androecium: staminal ring with 44-87 stamens, the filaments 1-1.5mm long, the anthers 0.4 mm long; hood flat, only slightly expanded dorsiventrally, pink, red, or dark purple, 7-13 x 7-14 mm, the appendages well-developed, with anthers; appendage-free ligule often with staminodes at upper end; hypanthium glabrous, drying dark brown to black, cuneate, truncate at very base; ovary 2-locular, each locule with 5-8 ovules attached at base of locule, the summit umbonate, 1.5-2.2 mm high, the style not well differentiated from summit. Fruits cylindric, 7-9.5 x 4-6 cm, rusty brown at maturity, calyx persisting as narrow, inconspicuous ring-like scar, the pericarp 11-16 mm thick. Seeds elongate, triangular in cross section, chestnut brown, with 4-5 longitudinally oriented vascular bundle traces, 35-40 x 9.5-14 mm; aril basal.

Common names: Brazil: matamata cascuda, matamata rosa, ripeiro vermelho.

Distribution: Restricted to central and eastern Amazonian, Brazil.

Ecology: A canopy tree of non-inundated forest .

Phenology: Corythophora alta flowers mainly from Dec to May (wet season) and its fruits release seeds mainly from Jul to Sep (dry season). In the central Brazilian Amazon, C. alta and C. rimosa subsp. rimosa flower and fruit at different times of the year. See Prance and Mori (1979) for more information on their phenological separation.

Pollination: No observations recorded but the most likely pollinators of this species are bees.

Dispersal: No observations recorded but the basal aril may attract bats as a food source and this may lead to dispersal of seeds by the bats.

Predation: No observations recorded.

Field characters: This species is a canopy tree without buttresses which possesses a scalloped bark with a thin outer bark and thick red, inner bark; pink, red, or dark purples petals and androecial hood; fodder stamens at the apex of the appendage-free ligule and onto the hood; and cylindrical fruits.

Taxonomic notes: Corythophora alta is morphologically similar to C. rimosa but differs from it most strikingly in the scalloped instead of fissured bark. Locule number in C. alta is nearly always two whereas it may be two, three, four, or five in C. rimosa.

Conservation: Not on IUCN Red List (Jan 2014).

Uses: None recorded.

Etymology: The species eptithet most likely refers to the tall height of this species.

Source: This species page is based on Mori in Mori & Prance, 1990.

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to C. A. Gracie and A. Tangerini for allowing us to use their images to illustrate the characters of this species.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Corythophora alta R.Knuth: [Article] Mori, S. A. & Prance, Ghillean T. 1990. Lecythidaceae - Part II: The zygomorphic-flowered New World genera (Couroupita, Corythophora, Bertholletia, Couratari, Eschweilera, & Lecythis). With a study of secondary xylem of Neotropical Lecythidaceae by Carl de Zeeuw. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21: 1-376.
Corythophora alta R.Knuth: [Article] Mori, S. A. & Lepsch da Cunha, Nadia M. 1995. The Lecythidaceae of a central Amazonian moist forest. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 75: 1-55.