Securidaca coriacea Bonpl. ex Steud.
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Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1972. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part IX. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 23: 1-832.
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Family
Polygalaceae
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Scientific Name
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Discussion
A large series of Alto Orinoco collections (Maguire et al 34497, 34633, 36230, 36492, 41581, 41787; Cowan & Wurdack 31491; Llewelyn Williams 14909, 15381; Campos 14; Tate 212) show a quite characteristic facies (oblong-elliptic obtuse leaves with erect hairs 0.07-0.15 mm long on the lower surfaces, flowers slightly smaller than typical), but it does not seem advisable to describe a variety of S. coriacea when the specific status is still in question. Within the range of S. coriacea (in South America from Colombia to Peru and Brazil), other morphologic nodes, not quite as distinct as that of the Orinoco, are discernible. Oort reduced S. coriacea to a variety of S. diversifolia, using the illegitimate (superfluous when published) but valid epithet “mollis” (from S. mollis H.B.K., Nov. Gen. Sp. 5: 421. 1823, based on the same type as S. coriacea) and overlooking Blake’s treatment in the North American Flora; perhaps the citable name would be S. diversifolia (L.) Blake var mollis Oort. For the present, S. coriacea will be treated as a species, characterized vegetatively by the erect pubescence of the lower leaf surfaces.