Endlicheria anomala (Nees) Mez

  • Authority

    Maguire, Bassett. 1965. The Botany of the Guayana Highland. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 12 (3): 1-285.

  • Family

    Lauraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Endlicheria anomala (Nees) Mez

  • Type

    Type. ''Circa Ega ad flum. Amazonum, Brasil. m. Sept. 1831," E. Poeppig 2552 (isotype, [male]fl. NY).

  • Description

    Distribution and Ecology - Distribution. A usually small tree with alternate chartaceous leaves, reticulate above, beneath fulvous to pale ferrugineous sericeous, in the dried state, with striking axillary panicles often densely flowered, occurring generally throughout the tropics in the northern part of South America. BRAZIL. Amazonas: Camatian, border of creek, varzea land, Froes 23966 (y.fr. IAN, NY), beira do Rio Refe, igapo, 26126 (fr. IAN). COLOMBIA. Amazonas: beira do Rio Loreto-Yaco, varzea. Black & Schultes 46-289 (fr. IAN, US); on flat m ud bank of Rio Popeyaca (tributary of Apaporis, between Rio Piraparana and Randal Yayacopi) near mouth, Schultes d Cabrera 15566 (yfr. NY, US); Amazonas-Vaupes: Rio Apaporis, flood-bank, entre el Rio Pacoa y el Rio Kananari, Soratama, 12664 (fr. NY, US), mouth of Pacoa, 13067 ([male] fl. NY), 13073 (fr. NY, US), 13076 (fl. NY), Soratama, 13236 (fl. NY), 13241 ([male] fl. NY); Caño Oo-go'-dja, Jinogoje, 17033 ([male] fl. NY); Vaupes: Rio Kuduyari (tributary of Rio Vaupes, middle and lower course, 17898 (abnormal fl. NY), US); Rio Guainia Basin, Rio Naquieni, vicinity of Cerro Monachi, Schultes & Lopez 10052 (fr. NY).

  • Discussion

    Goeppertia anomala Nees, Syst. Laurin. 370. 1836 Since the study of Mez, this well-named species has been the repository of collections of Endlicheria occurring in the Amazon drainage area and its periphery, which exhibit floral instability, notable particularly in the staminal cycles, the third of which usually has 4-celled anthers, the larger lower pair introrse, the upper small (or even absent) extrorse. The lower leaf surface is predominantly characterized by a golden or fulvous sericeous pubescence. The fruiting material, heretofore rarely collected, has been for the most part in a very young stage of development, the ellipsoid or oblong-ellipsoid fruit subtended by a flat disklike structure showing the minute, truncate remains of the tepals. The numbers cited above agree well with the type, Poeppig 2552 (Goeppertia polyantha) which is a staminate specimen. Goeppertia polyantha, a synonym according to Mez and later Kostermans, based on Spruce 1648 and Spruce "Nectandra (6) " probably 1433, both staminate specimens from the vicinity of Barra in the Province of Rio Negro, and Spruce 874 from British Guiana. Spruce 1648 accords closely with Poeppig 2552; the other two syntypes differ from the latter in the character of the pubescence on the lower leaf surface which is distinctly tomentose. Later collections of young fruiting material, made along the Rio Negro in the Amazon Basin, show also a persistent tomentum more or less olive-drab in the dried state instead of the characteristic often colorful sericeous pubescence. It is not feasible at present to predict from the young fruit available the characteristics of the mature fruit and its subtending cupule. The most closely related entity is Ocotea simulans Allen (Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 10(5) : 99. 1964) described from Amazonas, Venezuela principally along the Orinoco and Casiquiare rivers and their tributaries in the Guayana area and extending westward into the Vaupes basin. Obviously, the latter taxa belongs to the general anomala-comiplex. In some of the flowering material there is a deviation from the Endlicheria flower-type in a different manner, 4-celled anthers appearing in the three outer cycles; the fruiting material cited is identical with that of E. anomala, as well as the pubescence on the lower leaf surface. This, coupled with the disk, a type often subtending the fruit of members of the genus Ocotea, instead of the subhemispherical cupule typically found enveloping the base of Endlicheria fruits, was the basis for the new Ocotea species. Until mature fruiting collections are available which are beyond doubt conspecific with the Schomburgk and Spruce [Nectandra (6), "1433"] specimens, the status quo of the two described species will be maintained.

  • Distribution

    Distribution. A usually small tree with alternate chartaceous leaves, reticulate above, beneath fulvous to pale ferrugineous sericeous, in the dried state, with striking axillary panicles often densely flowered, occurring generally throughout the tropics in the northern part of South America.

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