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Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 44: 34. 1987

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori and Ghillean T. Prance

Type: French Guiana. Without locality, 1792 (fl), Leblond s.n. (holotype, P, photo NY).

Description: Small trees, to 20 m tall, unbuttressed. Bark smooth, with vertically oriented lenticels, often with reddish or maroon cast, the outer bark 1 mm thick, the inner 2-3 mm thick, yellowish-white when cut. Leaves not know to flush just before anthesis; petioles 4-11 mm long; blades usually elliptic to narrowly elliptic, infrequently narrowly obovate to oblanceolate, 9-26 x 4.5-9.5 cm, glabrous, chartaceous, the base acute to obtuse, the margins entire, the apex acuminate; secondary veins in 10-13 pairs. Inflorescences simple racemes, terminal, in axils of uppermost leaves, or from young branches below leaves; rachis puberulous, 1-4(-14) cm long; pedicels jointed at attachment with rachis, often tinged with pink or red, usually drying black, glabrous or puberulous, 10-35 mm long. Flowers 3.5-5 cm diam.; calyx with 6 lobes, the lobes widely to narrowly ovate, 6-11 x 4-7 mm, imbricate at bases only, convex to carinate abaxially, flat to concave adaxially, green, often tinged with pink, red or purple; petals 6, widely to narrowly obovate, white, white with tinges of pink or purple, entirely pink to purple, or infrequently yellow, 24-50 x 15-33 mm; androecium with staminal ring with 250-305 stamens, the filaments clavate, white, 1.5-2 mm long, the anthers 0.5 mm long, yellow, the hood ca. 25 x 20 mm, with weak triple coil, white, white with tinges of pink, or nearly all pink, the appendages yellow; ovary 2-locular, each locule with 7-10 basally attached ovules, the style not well differentiated from summit of ovary, 2-4 mm long. Fruits depressed turbinate to turbinate, often asymmetric at base, calyx-lobes often persisting as woody triangular knobs, 2-4 x 2.5-5 cm, the pericarp 3-5 mm thick, the operculum convex, umbonate. Seeds hemispherical to triangular in cross section, ca. 25 x 18 mm; aril lateral, white.

Common names: Guyana: kakaralli, swamp wena kakaralli. Surinam: bergi-manbarklak, bergi-manbarklaki, dwergman barklak, manbarklak. French Guiana: baikaaki (Sranan Longo), mahot noir. Brazil: matamatá, matamatá branco, matamatá roxa, wana.

Distribution: This species ranges throughout the Guianas into eastern and central Amazonia.

Ecology: Eschweillera pedicellata is an understory tree most frequent in non-flooded forests but also found in riverine forests.

Phenology: Mori and Boeke (1987) observed that the principal flower visitor of this species in central French Guiana is Eulaema peruviana, which was seen to enter flowers on numerous occasions with its ventral surface against the androecial hood. This species of bee apparently removes nectar from the apex of the coil of the hood. The inflorescences had a single open flower and the bees apparently visited the same tree day after day over a relatively long period to exploit the nectar source. Mori and Boeke (1987) also observed three flowers entered consecutively by a metallic green species of Euglossa which was not captured.

Pollination: The flowers are visited, and presumably pollinated, by large species of euglossine bees such as Eulaema peruviana (Mori & Boeke, 1987; Mori et aI., 1978).

Dispersal: No observations recorded but the lateral aril is most likely eaten by aniimals.

Predation: No observations recorded.

Field characters: Eschweilera pedicellata is a very common, understory tree characterized by its relatively small stature; usually small to medium-sized chartaceous leaves; simple racemes and relatively long pedicels; large flowers with long calyx-lobes; petals tinged with varying degrees of pink or purple; androecial hoods with a weakly developed triple coil; and small, depressed-turbinate or turbinate fruits.

Taxonomic notes: Collections of this species have been frequently identified as Eschweilera longipes (Poit.) Miers. In his protologue, Poiteau (1825) provides an exact illustration of the species and therefore there is no doubt that the epithet longipes has been correctly applied to this species. Unfortunately, because of the law of priority, E. longipes has to be placed in synonymy under the earlier and more incompletely described Lecythis pedicellata. The species is placed in Eschweilera because of its 2-locular ovary, coiled androecial hood, and well-developed lateral aril of the seed. Although Aublet's description of Lecythis zabucajo is partially based on E. pedicellata, this name is more correctly applied to the common, large-fruited Lecythis distributed in the Guianas and parts of Amazonia (see species page of L. zabucajo).

Uses: Non-recorded

Etymology: The species epithet most likely refers to the relatively long pedicel.

Conservation: IUCN Red List: not on list (IUCN, 2012).

Source: This species page is based on Mori in Mori & Prance, 1990.

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to M.-F. Prévost and B. Angell for allowing us to use their images and drawings to illustrate the characters of this species.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Eschweilera pedicellata (Rich.) S.A.Mori: [Article] Mori, S. A. 1987. The Lecythidaceae of a lowland Neotropical Forest: La Fumée mountain, French Guiana. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 44: 1-190.
Eschweilera pedicellata (Rich.) S.A.Mori: [Article] Mori, S. A. & Prance, Ghillean T. 1990. Lecythidaceae - Part II: The zygomorphic-flowered New World genera (Couroupita, Corythophora, Bertholletia, Couratari, Eschweilera, & Lecythis). With a study of secondary xylem of Neotropical Lecythidaceae by Carl de Zeeuw. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21: 1-376.
Eschweilera pedicellata (Rich.) S.A.Mori: [Article] Mori, S. A. & Lepsch da Cunha, Nadia M. 1995. The Lecythidaceae of a central Amazonian moist forest. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 75: 1-55.