Odontocarya deminuta (Diels) Barneby

  • Authority

    Barneby, Rupert C. 1972. New and notable Menispermaceae tribe Tinosporeae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 22: 137-151.

  • Family

    Menispermaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Odontocarya deminuta (Diels) Barneby

  • Description

    Distribution and Ecology - BRAZIL. Amazonas: Rio Jurua, fl [male], Traill11 (K).

  • Discussion

    Described as a "cipo climbing in the trees, sends runners along the ground and roots there." The specimen is leafless, but has a still attached cauliflorous panicle at early anthesis. It differs in some details from O. deminuta as described by me: flowers fasciculate by 2-3 (not all paired); petals 6, but the alternate ones very small; androecium 2-merous (!), the filaments free, 0.8 mm long, dorsoventrally compressed, slightly dilated upward, the erect, collateral anther-sacs 0.4 mm long, vertically dehiscent.

    In typical O. deminuta the flower has only 3 petals and the androecium is reduced to a single stamen. I had supposed that this solitary stamen represented a reduced 3-merous synandrium of the type common in sect. Somphoxylon, but it now seems to be remnant of an androecium composed of free stamens. The appearance of six rather than only three petals is not considered taxonomically important. The same variation has been established in O. tripetala (Barneby, 1970, p. 109). Diels examined and annotated Traill 11, but misidentified it as Somphoxylon wullschlaegelii, readily separable by its densely papillate staminate panicle and much larger flower.

  • Distribution

    BRAZIL. Amazonas: Rio Jurua, fl [male], Traill11 (K).

    Brazil South America|