Stachyarrhena reticulata Steyerm.

• Authority

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

• Family

  Rubiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Stachyarrhena reticulata Steyerm.

• Type

  Type. Shrub to 4 m; flowers white; occasional along drowned river margin between San Fernando de Atabapo and Cacagual, Territorio Federal Amazonas, Venezuela, at alt. 130 m, 18 Nov 1953, Bassett Maguire, John J. Wurdack & George S. Bunting 36259 (holotype N Y , staminate). Paratypes (all pistillate). Amazonas, Venezuela: en terreno arenoso en areas arboreadas, Yavita, en la margen del riachuela Temi, at alt. 280 m, Williams 13863; acuatico, en medio del Rio Sanariapo, cerca de su boca, at alt. 120 m, Williams 16050; en los claros en la margen del Cauo Temi, Yavita, Williams 14071.

• Discussion

  This species is related to S. penduliflora K. Schum., from which it differs in the rounded tips of the leaves, the strongly reticulated leaf-blades, and the characteristic abrupt termination of the midrib before reaching the tip of the blade. The special characters of the leaves of this species enabled the placing of the fruiting collections together with the staminate specimens as representing the same taxon. The vernacular name of the fruiting specimens is given as "pendare" and "earuto." The Williams collections, cited below, had all been questionably determined previously by Standley as Duroia fusifera.