Osteophloeum platyspermum (Spruce ex A.DC.) Warb.

  • Authority

    Smith, Albert C. & Wodehouse, R. P. 1938. The American species of Myristicaceae. Brittonia. 2: 393-527. f. 1-9.

  • Family

    Myristicaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Osteophloeum platyspermum (Spruce ex A.DC.) Warb.

  • Description

    Species Description - Tree up to 40 m. high, the trunk 50 cm. or more in diameter; branchlets slender, often striate, when young minutely and densely puberulent (hairs dark reddish brown, somewhat lepidote, sessile-stellate, 4-6- branched, about 0.1 mm. in diameter), soon glabrous; petioles slender, rugose, puberulent as the branchlets, shallowly canaliculate, narrowly winged, 15-30 mm. long; leaf blades often shining above, dark green, oblong-obovate, 8-20 cm. long, 3-6.5 cm. broad, gradually attenuate at base, rounded at apex and often slightly emarginate, glabrous above, glabrous (when young densely puberulent as the branchlets), minutely punctate, and often ceriferous beneath, the costa conspicuously grooved above, the secondary nerves 6-12 per side, ascending, slightly impressed or plane above, raised beneath, the veinlets obscure or slightly impressed above, plane or obscure beneath; staminate inflorescences densely puberulent on all exterior surfaces as the branchlets (hairs 0.2-0.3 mm. in diameter), 1-6 cm. long, the peduncle up to 2.5 cm. long; flowers solitary or in irregular fascicles of 2-8, subtended by minute coriaceous semiorbicular soon deciduous bracts less than 1 mm. long, the pedicels up to 5 mm. long, each bearing at the summit a bracteole (bracteoles coriaceous, semiorbicular, about 2 mm. broad at base and 1 mm. long) perianth about 4 mm. long, 3-lobed nearly to base, the lobes oblong, subacute or obtuse; androecium 2.5-3 mm. long, the filament column 1 mm. long or less, the anthers 1.5-2 mm. long, the connective mass often produced beyond the anthers, obtuse at apex; pistillate inflorescences resembling the staminate, the bracteole up to 2 mm. long, the ovary conical, carnose, densely and minutely lepidote-tomentellous, the stigma sessile, oblique; fruitiiig inflorescences slightly longer than the pistillate, glabrous throughout at maturity, the mature fruits few, pedicellate (pedicels stout, 5-10 mm. long), coriaceous, conspicuously rugose when dry, 17-25 mm. long (including stipe and apex), 20-25 mm. broad, con- spicuously carinate, long stipitate at base, apiculate at apex, the pericarp 0.5-1.5 mm. thick (much thicker at the sutures), the seed about half as long as broad. (Fig. 6.)

  • Discussion

    Myristica platysperma A. DC. in DC. Prodr. 14: 695. 1857

    Type locality: Panure, Rio Uaupes, Amazonas, Brazil.

    Native names: Colombia (Putumayo): Sebo caspi, Coninga.

  • Distribution

    Amazonian Brazil and adjacent Peru and Colombia. COLOMBIA: without locality, Lehmannr 9044 (K); Putumayo: Umbria, alt. 325 m., Klug 1965 (B, F, G, K, M, Mich, NY, US). PERU: Loreto: mouth of Rio Santiago, Tessmann 4505 (B, NY) ; near Iquitos, Klug 262 (F, NY, US); Rio Amazon, Williams 3140 (B, F, US). BRAZIL: Amazonas: Rio Solimoes, Municipality Sao Paulo de Olivenqa, Ducke 73 (F, Y), 23583 (B, US); Krukoff 8074 (NY), 8706 (NY), 9060 (NY); Rio Uaupes, Spruce 2491 (cotype coll., B, G, K, NY, P, W

    Brazil South America| Peru South America| Colombia South America|