Schoepfia californica Brandegee

  • Authority

    Sleumer, Hermann O. 1984. Olacaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 38: 1-159. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Schoepfiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Schoepfia californica Brandegee

  • Type

    Type. Mexico. Baja California: San Gregorio and Comandú, fl brachystyl. & fr, T. S. Brandegee s.n. (holotype, UC, n.v.; isotype, US).

  • Description

    Species Description - Hemispherical shrub, semiscandent in shade, or tree, 2-6(-7.5) m high; bark brown, rough-fissured. Branches stout, stiff, horizontally spreading, divaricate. Branchlets slender, early gray-corticate, the youngest parts patently puberulent. Leaves usually two in a fascicle from short axes which are scaly from the scars of detached leaves, oblanceolate to obovate-subspathulate, apex broadly attenuate, obtuse or rounded, base long cuneate-attenuate to the short petiole, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, glaucous, dull on both surfaces, glabrous except finely puberulent in lowest part of the lamina, not tuberculate, thin-marginate, (1.2-)1.5-2.5 x (0.3-)0.5-0.8(-l) cm, in shade-forms to 3.3 x 1.5 cm, 3-nerved from base, nerves faintly or hardly raised on both surfaces, reticulation of veins obscure; petiole 1-1.5 mm long. Peduncles 1 (rarely 2) from the end of the leaf-bearing axes, patently short-hairy, 2-3 mm long, bearing on top 1 or usually 2 sessile flowers. Flower axis and the cup-shaped 3-dentate epicalyx (1.5 mm long) patently short-hairy. Corolla dull red, reddish-yellow, or purplish-brown, glabrous, urceolate-cylindric and slightly 4- or 5-angled both in the dolichostylous and brachystylous forms, 6(-7, -8) mm long, 4- or 5-lobed for ¼ to 1/3 of the total corolla length, lobes recurved. Disk and top of ovary sparsely hairy or subglabrous. Drupe subglobular-ellipsoid, appressedly short-hairy except the glabrous top, 7-8 x 6-7 mm.

  • Distribution

    W Mexico (Baja California); in scrub vegetation, hillsides or bottoms of rocky canons, banks of arroyos on moist marginal argillaceous soil, washes, and alkaline flats, from sea level to ca. 750 m alt.

    Mexico North America| Baja California Mexico North America|