Amphitecna macrophylla (Seem.) Miers ex Baill.

  • Authority

    Gentry, Alwyn H. 1980. Bignoniaceae--Part 1. (Crescentieae and Tourrettieae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-130. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bignoniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Amphitecna macrophylla (Seem.) Miers ex Baill.

  • Type

    Type. Specimen without data from plant of unknown origin cultivated at Kew (K).

  • Synonyms

    Crescentia macrophylla Seem., Crescentia regia Seem., Crescentia nigripes Linden, Ferdinandia superba hort. ex Seem., Amphitecna nigripes (Linden) Baill., Enallagma macrophylla (Seem.) Lundell, Dendrosicus macrophyllus (Seem.) A.H.Gentry

  • Description

    Species Description - Small pachycaul tree 2-7 m tall, the leaves in a terminal cluster; branchlets thick, rather angular. Leaves alternate-verticillate, congested near branch apex, oblanceolate, obtuse to acuminate at apex, cuneate-attenuate at base, very large, 28-53 cm long, 5-13 cm wide, subcoriaceous, glabrous, midrib conspicuously raised below, somewhat flattened above, secondary veins plane above, prominent beneath, inconspicuously white-margined, drying olive, the tan main veins contrastingly lighter below; petiole poorly demarcated, to 1.5 cm long in smallest leaves. Inflorescence a few cauliflorous flowers from a thick sessile densely bracteate short-shoot, the pedicels 1.5-2 (-3.7 fide Seemann) cm long, glabrous. Flowers with the calyx bilabiately split to near base or split only 1.5-1.7 cm on one side, 2.2-3.5 cm long, each lobe 0.8-1 cm wide, obtuse to acutish, glabrous with a very few plate-shaped glands; corolla white, tubular-campanulate, more or less radially symmetrical, 3.7-5 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide at mouth of tube, the lobes fused into a frilly-margined rim, stalked-lepidote on outside of lobes, otherwise glabrous; stamens inserted 1-1.7 cm from base of tube, the anthers subexserted, the thecae slightly divergent, 4-5 mm long, filaments 1.3-2 cm long; pistil 2.5-3 cm long, the ovary ovoid, ca. 3 mm long, to 2 mm wide at base, slightly glandular-lepidote, 2-locular at base, unilocular at apex, disc annular-pulvinate, 1 mm long, ca. 4 mm wide. Fruit (after Graebener, 1899) narrowly ellipsoid, acuminate, 14-16 cm long, 4-4.5 cm wide, the seeds thick, 12 mm long, 14 mm wide.

  • Distribution

    Middle altitudes around 700-1300 m in the coffee zone of central Veracruz, Mexico. Collected only twice since 1908 and perhaps nearly extinct; once rather widely cultivated under glass in Europe.

    Mexico North America| Veracruz Mexico North America|