Endlicheria rubriflora Mez

  • Authority

    Chanderbali, Andre S. 2004. (Lauraceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 91: 1-141. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Lauraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Endlicheria rubriflora Mez

  • Type

    Type. Colombia. Without locality and date, Triana 1032 (holotype: P).

  • Synonyms

    Aniba reticulata A.C.Sm., Endlicheria trianae O.C.Schmidt, Endlicheria wurdackiana C.K.Allen

  • Description

    Species Description - Trees to 15 m. Branchlets slender, midway along flush 2-3 mm diam., distally weakly angular, soon terete, sparsely pubescent, the surface clearly exposed, dark to reddish brown, the hairs relatively short, to 0.3 mm, straight, appressed to ascending, yellowish green; terminal buds slender, 2 X 0.6 cm, densely pubescent, the hairs as on branchlets, appressed. Leaves alternate, widely and evenly spaced along current flush; petioles slender, to 1.5 X 0.2 cm, terete, the indument as on branchlets; laminae char-taceous, plane, elliptic to obovate, 7-20 X 3-8 cm, the base obtuse to rounded, briefly attenuate, the apex obtuse to acute, acuminate for up to 2 cm, the margins flat throughout; upper surface greyish green, waxy, the midrib sunken towards petiole, otherwise primary to fourth-order veins raised, their prominence decreasing with rank; lower surface sparsely pubescent, the hairs appressed, ascending, or erect, slightly denser on main veins, all vein orders raised, their prominence decreasing with rank; secondary veins 6-9 per side, ± evenly spaced, slightly more distant around midlamina, patent, diverging at 70-85° (more obtusely towards apex), arcuate, distal pairs loop-connected; tertiaries laxly reticulating between secondaries. Staminate inflorescences evenly spaced along current flush in the axils of foliage leaves, to 10 cm long with 8 lateral branches, branch orders 3-4, the highest order dichasial, lax, the flowers distant, the axes sparsely pubescent, the hairs greenish yellow to grey, ascending, denser on pedicels; bracts and bracteoles caducous by anthesis, lanceolate, densely pubescent, the hairs as on axes, appressed; pedicels terete, to 2 mm long, those supporting secondary flowers slightly shorter. Flowers broadly rotate, 5 mm diam., sparingly rusty strigillose outside; receptacle shallowly infundibuliform, 0.6 × 1.3 mm, densely yellowish tomentose inside. Tepals fleshy, broadly ovate, 2 × 1.6 mm, spreading to recurved at anthesis, the inner surface and margins densely rusty to reddish papillose. Stamens of whorls I and II broadly stipitate, 0.8 m tall, the anthers reniform, 0.6 × 0.8 mm, whorl 11 slightly narrower, glabrous, the apex rounded, the connectives slightly incurved over the 2 locelli, these suborbicular, just below apex, minute, introrse, the filaments laminar, 0.2 × 0.6 mm, glabrous; whorl III stamens stout, sessile, 0.6 mm tall, the anthers transversely oblong, 0.3 × 0.6 mm, erect, locelli 2, extrorse-latrorse, the filaments as broad as or broader than anthers, columnar, glabrous, the basal glands sessile, globose, relatively large, filling the space between inner and outer whorls of stamens; whorl IV wanting; pistillode filiform. Pistillate inflorescence with indument and color as in staminate plants, but shorter and with fewer lateral branches, the flowers slightly deeper; stamens sterile, smaller, the anthers auriculate; ovary glabrous, ovoid; style stout, weakly distinguished from ovary; stigma almost sessile, discoid, 0.6 mm diam. Fruits borne on stout claviform pedicels of up to 3 × 0.5 cm; cupules discoid to reflexed, to 4 cm diam., glabrous outside and inside, the margins lobed; drupes ellipsoid, to 3 × 2 cm.

  • Discussion

    Endlicheria rubriflora has green-drying leaves similar to those of E. longicaudata and E. pyriformis, but its rotate flowers with densely papillose tepals around a central hub of large globose glands and reddish stamens are unmistakable. The cupules of this species are also unmatched by congeners. The cupules appear to start off as shallow patelliform structures, and as fruits mature they flatten to a thick disc and ultimately the margins become recurved, becoming umbrellalike in aspect. Similar cupules are produced by Rhodostemonodaphne antioquensis (see also Madriñán, 1996b), the flowers of which would also be identical but for the four-locellate anthers. Besides the added pair of locelli in R. antioquensis, its ovate leaves with a more coriaceous texture help to separate it from E. rubriflora.

    Lowland Amazonian collections, including the type of Aniba reticulata, have slightly smaller flowers, but otherwise Endlicheria rubriflora is morphologically uniform. The type of E. trianae is not available to me, but since Smith’s (1933) description does not provide distinguishing characters, I follow Kostermans’s (1937) synonymy under E. rubriflora. The third synonym accepted here, E. wurdackiana, is based on a fruiting specimen that has the cupule and vegetative characters of E. rubriflora.

  • Common Names

    jigua de mierda, palta amarilla, roble palta, roblecillo puchirín

  • Distribution

    Small trees from western Amazonian lowlands and adjacent eastern Andean slopes at 100-1900 m. Found in both flooded and nonflooded soils. Flowering and fruiting throughout the year.

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