Monographs Details:
Authority:

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

Myristicaceae
Description:

Species Description - Small or medium sized tree; branchlets slender, soon glabrous and cinereous; petioles rugose, canaliculate, slender, 1-1.5 mm. in diameter, 7-15 mm. long, glabrous; leaf blades chartaceous or thin coriaceous. finely rugose or nearly smooth on both surfaces, often shining above, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 9-18 cm. long, 3-8 cm. broad, acute to attenuate at base, obtusely cuspidate or short acuminate at apex, the costa raised above, the secondary nerves 8-12 per side, spreading, shallowly impressed or plane above, nearly plane beneath, often obscure ascending near margins and obscurely anastomosing, the veinlets immersed; staminate inflorescences 3-9 cm. long, fasciculate-racemose (fascicles sometimes borne on minute lateral branches up to 2 mm. long), the rachis slender, the fascicles alternate or subopposite, 7-20 per inflorescence; flowers 2-7 per fascicle, the pedicels slender, up to 4 mm. long, bracteolate at summit (bracteole membranous, one-sided, obtuse, about 1 mm. long); perianth carnose or thin carnose, often glabrescent and sparsely glandular-punctate, cupuliform or rotate, 1.3-2 mm. long, 3-lobed nearly. to base, the lobes deltoid-ovate, subacute, conspicuously spreading at anthesis; androecium ellipsoid or obovoid, 0.4-0.6 mm. long and nearly as broad, the filament column contracted at base, the anthers 0.2-0.3 mm. long, dorsally adnate to carnose fused connectives; pistillate inflorescences borne on larger branchlets (or on trunk?), about 2 cm. long, few-branched from near base, ferruginous puberulent; fascicles few, the flowers 2-10 per fascicle, the pedicels up to 2 mm. long, the perianth thick carnose, the ovary cylindric, truncate at summit, the stigma sessile; fruiting inflorescences up to 6 cm. long, the mature fruits usually 2-4 per inflorescence, pedicellate (pedicels stout, 3-5 mm. long), transversely ellipsoid, 17-20 mm. long (excluding stipe), 21-27 mm. broad, conspicuously carinate, apiculate at apex, the lateral extremities rounded, the stipe stout, 2-3 mm. long, the pericarp rugose, 2-4 mm. thick or more on the sutures, the aril red, obscurely laciniate distally, the seed conspicuoisly broader than long.

Discussion:

Myristica Mouchigo Baillon, Hist. P1. 2: 504, nomen. 1870.

Myristica Sagotiana Benth. in Hook. Ic. 13: 48. 1878.

Myristica Mozehio Stone, Ann. Mus. Colon. Marseille III. 8: 3. 1922.

Type locality: French Guiana.

Native names: French Guiana: Mouchigo rouge. Van Ooststroom (3: 117) lists the native names used in Surinam.

This species, and several others in the group which I have designated as Sagotianae, is characterized by its minute androecium with a fleshy filament column. At anthesis the perianth becomes practically rotate, and the small androecium is readily seen at its center. The present species is easily recognized on foliage characters.

Distribution:

Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| Brazil South America|