Rhodostemonodaphne macrocalyx (Meisn.) Rohwer ex Madriñán

  • Authority

    Madriñán, Santiago R. 2004. (Lauraceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 92: 1-102. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Lauraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Rhodostemonodaphne macrocalyx (Meisn.) Rohwer ex Madriñán

  • Type

    Type. Brazil. Without locality, 1836 (fr), Sellow s.n. [197 fide Mez] (holotype: B [photos: B neg. 5268, NY neg. 8382, F neg. 3678]; isotypes: F [frag, ex B], HBG [frag, ex B]).

  • Synonyms

    Goeppertia macrocalyx Meisn., Ocotea macrocalyx (Meisn.) Mez

  • Description

    Species Description - Trees: branches basitonic, in axils of cataphylls or basal foliage leaves; twigs terete, 2-4 mm diam.; epidermis brownish to black; terminal bud plump, ca. 1 x 1 mm; cataphylls caducous; indument tomentose, caducous by next flush, the hairs dense, to 1 mm long, curved to crisped, erect, brownish. Leaves: petioles slender, 1-2.5 cm x 1.4-2.4 mm, adaxially flattened; blades chartaceous, flat, narrowly elliptic, sometimes lobed!, (6-)7-13(-23) X (l-)2-4(-8) cm; base acute to obtuse, minutely decurrent, 40-60(-100)°; apex attenuate to acute to rounded, 30-50(-1 10)°, ultimately acuminate for up to 2.5 cm; margin plane; primary vein above flat to slightly raised, below prominent; secondary veins (4-)6(-9) pairs, equidistant, eucamptodromous, above flat to slightly raised, below prominent, diverging at 40-60°, evenly arching (forked), chordal angle 20-30°, the angle uniform along blade length; tertiary veins slightly raised, below raised, random-reticulate to scalariform; higher-order veins above slightly raised, below raised; surface above green to brown, below light brown, often whitish; indument above absent, the primary vein tomentose, below tomentose, the hairs isolated, to 1 mm long, curved, erect, yellowish to yellowish brown, denser on the veins (with inconspicuous hair domatia), persisting for at least two flushes. Staminate inflorescences: mesotonic to acrotonic, erect, peduncles 216 cm long, the hypopodia 1-5 cm X 0.5-2 mm, branch orders 2-5 (-8), the second-order branches 410, dispersed, lowest branch to 2(-5.5) cm long, color and indument of all axes as on twigs; bracts soon caducous, to 3.5 mm long, adaxially glabrous; bracteoles soon caducous, to 1.5 mm long, adaxially hairy. Staminate flowers: pedicels ca. 5.6 X 0.8 mm, the diameter even throughout; receptacle obconical, ca. 2 X 2.4 mm; tepals coriaceous, elliptic to ovate, ca. 3 X 2.5 mm, at anthesis spreading to recurved, reddish to salmon to brown, translucent, adaxially puberulous; stamens of whorls I and II filiform, the anthers oblong inflexed, ca. 1.8 X 0.44 mm, glabrous, the locelli 4, in two almost superposed pairs, introrse, the glands absent; whorl III filiform, ca. 1.8 X 0.4 mm, glabrous, the anthers oblong, the locelli 4, the upper pair latrorse, the lower pair extrorse, the glands globular to folded, ca. 1 mm diam. (protruding beyond outer whorls); whorl IV absent; all stamens reddish; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers: pistil ca. 2.4 x 1 mm; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm long, glabrous. Fruits: pedicels to 18 X 3 mm, gradually enlarging to form the cupule; cupule trumpet-shaped, to 13 X 17 mm, smooth, the margin undulate to straight, tepals persisting to caducous; berry elliptic, to 23 X 14 mm.

  • Discussion

    Field notes: Trees to 15 m tall and 25 cm diam., already flowering when 6 m tall. Tepals cream to greenish. Berry greenish.

    Rhodostemonodaphne macrocalyx is characterized by its flowers which have elongated, filiform stamens, inflexed anthers with introrse to latrorse dehiscence, and very large glands of whorl III which protrude beyond the outer whorls. In all these characters it resembles various species of the genus Pleurothyrium. However, it appears to be most closely related to Rhodostemonodaphne capixabensis also from the Atlantic coast of Brazil (see Table VIII).

    There is a marked north-south variation gradient, most pronounced on the southern extratropical extreme. In the northernmost part of the range, two collections from the state of Bahia (Mori et al. 10669 and T. S. dos Santos 885), have larger, narrowly elliptic, long-acuminate leaves, with few, branched secondary veins, and profusely branched inflorescences, allowing the distinction with the sympatric Rhodostemonodaphne capixabensis (see discussion under R. capixabensis). The majority of the specimens examined come from the state of Rio de Janeiro. In general they have small, elliptic to narrowly ovate, or attenuate leaves, and inflorescences with few orders of branching. The only known specimen from the Mantiqueira range in the state of São Paulo is indistinguishable from the collections from Rio de Janeiro. Further south the various collections by Hatschbach differ from the rest in a number of characters. Hatschbach 8936 has large long-acuminate leaves and much branched inflorescences similar to the specimens from the northern extreme of the range. Two inland specimens from Bocaiúva do Sul (Hatschbach & Cordeiro 53737 and Hatschbach & J. M. Silva 61392), have smaller leaves with a high number of secondary veins (to 8).

    Three coastal specimens collected on mountain slopes (Hatschbach 18272, 18487, and 21269) differ from the rest in having widely elliptic leaves, with more obtuse bases and apices, and conspicuously branched secondary veins. The collections are unusual in that most of the leaves show varying degrees of lobing, associated with the forked secondaries, ranging from a slight apical asymmetry to one conspicuous lateral lobe. This lobing of the leaves is known only in two distant genera of Lauraceae (i.e., Sassafras and Lindera). These specimens may represent a separate entity from the core of Rhodostemonodaphne macrocalyx. One collection from Espírito Santo, I. A. Silva 345, is here postulated as a hybrid between R. capixabensis and R. macrocalyx (see discussion under R. capixabensis).

    Vegetatively Rhodostemonodaphne macrocalyx resembles Endlicheria paniculata (Spreng.) Macbr., a species inhabiting the same general area. The indument and leaf shape and size are very similar. They can be distinguished by the fewer, more acute secondary veins and the two locellate anthers of E. paniculata.

    Mez (1889) included Goeppertia reflectens (Nees) Meissner in the synonymy of Ocotea macrocalyx (Meissner) Mez; Meissner had misidentified Graham s.n. as that species. However, Graham s.n. belongs to Rhodostemonodaphne macrocalyx. An invalid name, "Mespilodaphne floribunda Meissner, another synonym cited by Mez in the same work and attributed to manuscript annotations in various herbaria, can be referred to the specimen Riedel s.n. (given the number 770 by Mez), which I have seen annotated by Meissner as such (cf. G [2 sheets], and K); it belongs to R. macrocalyx.

    Distribution and Ecology: This species is the most southerly member of the genus. It is found on the Atlantic coast from Bahia to Paraná at 25° S. The plants grow in coastal forest and adjacent mountains from sea level to 800 m (occasionally reaching ca. 1500 m in the Mantiqueira range). The bulk of the flowering specimens were collected December-April, during the main months of the rainy season, with a few flowering collections in the northern part of the range made as late (early) as September. The few fruiting specimens have been collected in June-July, at the beginning of the dry season.

  • Common Names

    Canelo batallia, canela cedro

  • Distribution

    Brazil South America| Bahia Brazil South America| Espirito Santo Brazil South America| Paraná Brazil South America| Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America| São Paulo Brazil South America|