Monographs Details – French Guianan E-Flora Project

Monographs Details:

Authority:

Sleumer, Hermann O. 1980. Flacourtiaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 22: 1-499. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family:

Lacistemataceae

Scientific Name:

Lacistema aggregatum (P.J. Bergius) Rusby

Synonyms:

Piper aggregatum P.J. Bergius, Lacistema myricoides Sw., Nematospermum laevigatum Rich., Synzyganthera purpurea Ruiz & Pav., Piper fasciculatum Ruiz & Pav., Didymandra purpurea (Ruiz & Pav.) Willd., Lacistema floribundum Miq., Lacistema angustum Schnizl., Lacistema recurvum Schnizl., Lacistema elongatum Schnizl., Lacistema coriaceum A.DC., Lacistema poeppigii A.DC., Lacistema purpureum (Ruiz & Pav.) A.DC., Lacistema myricoides var. stipitatum A.DC., Lacistema bolivianum Gand., Lacistema guyanense Gand., Lacistema curtum J.F.Macbr., Lacistema rosidiscum J.F.Macbr., Lacistema aggregatum var. elongatum Maguire, Lacistema weberbaueri Baehni, Lacistema occidentale Cuatrec., Lacistema orinocense Baehni, Lacistema pacificum Cuatrec.

Description:

Species Description - Shrub or tree generally 2.0-5.0, rarely up to 12.0 m high; trunk up to 30.0 cm diam. Branchlets usually glabrous, rarely set with scattered appressed maybe hirsutulous hairs at tips, brownish, older parts sparsely lenticellate. Leaves generally persistent, though semideciduous in seasonal forest, oblong or elliptic to lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, sometimes lanceolate-elliptic, apex short- or long-, rarely subcaudate-acuminate, tip acute or often bluntish, base cuneate to almost rounded, firmly membranaceous or chartaceous, rarely subcoriaceous (or even coriaceous in savannahs or savannah/forest border), immature ones sometimes substrigose-hairy as are the stipules, mature ones generally glabrous, though sparse short appressed hairs may occur on midrib and lateral nerves, very rarely also on the intervenium beneath, subserrulate or undulate, usually subentire, (6.0-)7.0-12.0 (rarely -20.0) cm long, (2.5-)3.0-4.0 (-7.0, rarely -9.0) cm broad, lateral nerves (3-)4-6 pairs, generally flat above, prominent beneath, veins transverse and slightly raised on both faces or more distinctly so beneath, reticulation of veinlets lax and rather obscure in general; petiole 5.0-9.0(-12.0) mm long; stipules lanceolate-linear, 8.0—9.0 mm long, 1.5 mm broad at base, subpersistent. Spikes (3-)8-12 per axil, 0.6-1..8 (very rarely in part in the same axil or on the same specimen up to 3.0, occasionally even up to 5.0) cm long, 1.2-2.0 mm diam at full anthesis; rhachis hairy. Flowers white to cream, fragrant, their subtending bract ovate-deltoid, thickened below, apiculate, either covering or not covering the sepals. Sepals usually 4, occasionally 1, 3, or 6, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, sometimes subspathulate. Disk variable in shape and size, usually membranous, rarely rather fleshy, reddish, cup-shaped, entire or undulate, rarely 4-lobulate. Ovary glabrous; style practically 0; stigmas 3, sessile. Capsule bacciform, obovoid-ellipsoid, generally contracted at base or substipitate for 1.0-3.0 mm, red to brown, 6.0-8.0 (-10.0) mm long; seed 1, brown-black, ca 6.0 mm long, with white aril.

Distribution and Ecology - Widespread from S Mexico to Panama, on Jamaica, Trinidad, from Colombia to Paraguay and Argentina (Jujuy, Misiones), the Guianas, Brazil (Mato Grosso); in rain forest, cloud forest, gallery forest, second-ary forest, transition from forest to high savannah forest, in thickets, low caatinga or cerrado, often along stream, also on limestone, locally common; from lowland to 1450(-1800) m alt.

Discussion:

Lacistema aggregatum, widely distributed and found in ecologically different situations, shows a rather large variation in the number, shape and size of the sepals, the texture of the leaves and the number of their lateral nerves; though generally glabrous, forms with scattered hairs on branchlets and leaves occur. All these variations have been used to distinguish a number of species by previous authors. After having studied the enormous amount of specimens now available, the author has decided to recognize L. aggregatum in a wide sense. The other species kept as such in sect Lacistema are certainly close to L. aggregatum, but their distinguishing characters seem to be bound to certain areas of distribution.

Part of the material of L. aggregatum from Bolivia has shorter spikes, narrower and usuallly subserrate leaves, thus merging into L. hasslerianum, a species previously regarded by the author as being conspecific with L. aggregatum. Specimens from Bolivia with not yet fully developed spikes cannot be attributed to one or the other species with certainty.