Bellucia dichotoma Cogn.
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Authority
Renner, Susanne S. 1989. Systematic studies in the Melastomataceae Bellucia, Loreya and Macairea. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 50: 1-112.
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Family
Melastomataceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Tree, 4-8(-12) x 0.07-0.20 m; bark brown, with fine cracks and pustules. Leaves 21-30 x 14-20 cm, broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, subrotundate at base, the inner pair of lateral primaries departing ca. 1 cm above the base, lower leaf surface reddish villose, pilosity quite variable in density; petioles 2-5 cm long. Cymes 2-3-branched, on the trunk and on the branches below the leaves; pedicels 10-15 mm long. Flowers mostly 6-merous; hypanthium 10-12 mm long, pilose; calyx a calyptra, dehiscing in an irregular semicircle, drying as a hyaline membrane, often persistent on the limb after anthesis; petals 20-22 mm long, white; stamens (11-) 12(-14), filaments 6-8 mm long, thecae ca. 5 mm long; ovary (10-)11-12-locular; style ca. 20 mm long. Fruit a greenish-yellow, subglabrous berry. Seeds ovoid, ca. 0.5 mm long, testa irregularly tuberculate.
Distribution and Ecology - Distribution and ecology (Fig. 7): Bellucia dichotoma occurs in the central and lower A m azon basin in non-flooded forest; it grows in disturbed and undisturbed vegetation on clay loam or sandy soil.
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Discussion
Type: Brazil. Para: Santarem, Apr 1850, Spruce 819 (lectotype here designated: P!, photo F neg. 36841!; isolectotypes: G-BOISS!, G-DC!, K!, photo, H. A. Gleason s.n.!, P!, W!).
Figs. 1D, 2G.
Bellucia imperialis Saldanha & Cogniaux in Martius, H. bras. 14(4): 515, pl. 109. 1888. Type: Brazil. Amazonas: Manaus, Schwacke HI.n.374 (=Glaziou 13830) (lectotype here designated: BR frag.!; isolectotypes: GOET!, P!, R!).
Local names: araçarana, araçá de anta, papa terra vermelha, papa terra amarela (Brazil). The bark is used to waterproof ropes and wooden surfaces; it is also thought to have medical properties as an infusion.
The characters used by Cogniaux to separate Bellucia imperialis from B. dichotoma, both based on Spruce collections, do not hold. In fact, Spruce (1908, vol. 1: 223) regarded the material he sent from Santarem and that from Manaus as conspecific. Artificial pollinations carried out in Manaus with pollen of a flower brought from Santarem the day before showed that the two populations were interfertile; big fruits with viable seeds resulted from the experiment. Interspecific hybrids between B. dichotoma and B. grossularioides are discussed under the latter species.
Bellucia dichotoma was once introduced in the Botanical Garden in Rio de Janeiro but does not persist. Several persons w h o have tried to grow the species as an omamental in southem Brazil assert that it does not survive outside its central Amazonian habitat. Macbride (1941) misattributed Bellucia dichotoma (sub B. imperialis) to Peru by confusing it with B. pentamera. Bellucia dichotoma is illustrated in Cogniaux (1888, pl. 109).