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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Cycl. (Rees) 17: 2. 1811

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Description:

Author: S. A. Mori

Type: French Guiana. On the Sinnamary River, 40 leagues from its mouth, Oct (fl, fr), Aublet s.n. (BM, photo neg. no. N. S. 398). Basionym = Pirigara hexapetala (Aubl.)

Description: Trees, small to medium sized, 3-20(-25) m tall; leaf-bearing branches 2-5(-9) mm in diameter, the leaves loosely grouped at their ends; petiole scars 2-15 mm apart. Bark often slightly scalloped, reddish brown. Leaves not deciduous just before flowering; petioles 2-17 mm long, (1.5-)2-3(-5) mm diam., subterete to semicircular in cross section, flattened somewhat adaxially; blades elliptic, oblanceolate, or obovate; (9-)10-24(-45) x 3-13 cm wide, glabrous, chartaceous to coriaceous, the base acute to attenuate, narrowly decurrent, the margins entire to serrulate, the apex acuminate to attenuate; secondary veins in 9-13 pairs, the tertiary veins reticulate, the higher order venation prominulous. Inflorescences suprafoliar or axillary, with 1-4(-6) flowers, the rachises rusty-white tomentose, the pedicel subtended by a leaf or by a single oblong, ovate, or lanceolate, keeled caducous bract 4-9(-12) X 2-8 mm and bearing 2 ovate-oblong bracteoles (2.5-)4-12 x 2-12 mm inserted above the articulation at various points along length of pedicel; pedicel/hypanthium (6-)15-25(30) mm. Flowers 6-9(-16) cm diam.; calyx-lobes triangular, sagittate, or ovate, with inverted Y-shaped thickenings adaxially, 4-12 x 3-9(-12) mm, rusty-tomentose, green; petals (5-)6(-8), obovate to oblanceolate, infrequently oblong, (20-)30-40(-80) x 10-30(-50) mm, puberulous, white; androecium white outside, usually yellow on inside, the staminal tube (4-)8-15 mm high, the outermost filaments 8-18 mm, white, the anthers 1.6-2.9(-3.8) mm, yellow; hypanthium 6-costate, rusty-tomentose; ovary (5-) 6(-8)-locular, glabrous to puberulous at summit, the style 1-2(-3) mm, the stigma with (5-)6(-8) lobes. Fruits globose, (5-)6(-8) costate, 10-30 x 12-35 mm, first green, then yellow-orange at maturity, brown when dried, with (5-)6(-8) persistent triangular, sagittate, or ovate calyx-lobes. Seeds 1-5 per fruit, trigonous to semicircular in cross section, 10-16 x 6-13 mm, carunculate; funicle straight, not enlarged, 1-5(-9) mm long; cotyledons fleshy.

Common names: Colombia. Coral (Little & Little 8417), titaquemu (Karijona language, Garcia-Barriga 14579). Venezuela. Chupón de Muerto (Brito 30), chupón ventoso (>Pittier 9096>), coco de mono (Steyermark 90090), motin (Pittier 10965), muerto (Bernardi 6948), palo de muerto (Pittier 10965). Guyana. Chawanaime (British Guiana Forest Dept. 7508). Surinam. Lannaballi Hohorodikoro (Boschwezen 55), lannaballi djarmo (Boschwezen 55), hoogland konikonioedoe (Jimenez-Saa 1524). French Guiana. Bois puant (Mélinon 9), tapouhoupa (Paramaka language, BAFOG 7345, 7351, 7597). Brazil. Lalouch (Maku language, Prance et a.l 15585); jeniparana (Cowan 38184, Eingeborner 562; Oliveira 2294, 2547, 2953, 3046, 3573, 4409; Krukoff 1036, 1129; Silva 1644; Williams & Silva 18221); matamataica (Black 47-1958); abiurana (Krukoff 1243); hicodi (Uaicá-Mucajaí language, Prance et al. 10950).

Distribution: A very wide-spread and common species throughout Amazonia, the Guianas, and north central Venezuela.

Ecology: A small to medium-sized tree most common in well-drained forests but also encountered in flood-plain forests.

Phenology: In the Guianas, Gustavia hexapetala blooms from Jul to Dec and bears fruit from Oct to Apr (the peak fruiting time is Mar and Apr). Collections from the lower Amazon (below the junction of the Rios Negro and Solimões) indicate a Jul to Oct blooming time and a Sep to Dec fruit set. Fertile specimens from the Rio Negro Basin in Brazil have been collected mostly in Sep and Oct, while those from the Solimões watershed have been collected mostly between Fe and Sep.

Pollination: Mori and Boeke (1987) observed that the flowers of a tree (1007) of G. hexapetala were visited many times by numerous individuals of Bombus cayennensis between 0900 and 1000. The visits, accompanied by a loud buzzing, were so vigorous that many anthers were knocked from the filaments. Two visits by Pseudoaugochloropsis sp. 1 were also recorded in the same tree. In contrast, no Bombus cayennensis were seen in different tree observed on 29 Apr and 1 May 1983. On the first date the tree was entered at 1345, and no bees were recorded during one-half hour of observation. On the second date, we observed numerous visits by what appeared to be a single species of metallic green Euglossa between 0800 and 0900. This species was hesitant to enter flowers but once it did, it stayed for up to 24 seconds collecting pollen. This is our only observation of a euglossine entering the flowers of an actinomorphic-flowered Lecythidaceae at this study site.

Dispersal: No observations of animals eating the fruits have been observed. However, on numerous occasions fruits that have been opened by animals have been recorded.

Predation: The larvae of xylophagous beetles in the family Cerambycidae feed on the wood of fallen branches and tree trunks of G. hexapetala. Because the wood is dead, this activity exerts no apparent selective pressure on the species, and therefore the beetles are not predators in the normal meaning of the word (Lee et al., 2014).

Field characters: Usually an understory tree characterized by a cylindric trunk; bark often somewhat scalloped; leaves relatively small for Gustavia and almost always wider above middle; calyx-lobes triangular with inverted Y-shaped thickenings adaxially; flowers actinomorphic; corolla usually with six but sometimes as few as five and as many as eight petals; androecial ring white outside and yellow inside; summit of the ovary yellow; and a winged hypanthium and fruit.

Taxonomic notes: As in most wide-ranging species of plants, considerable variability is found in G. hexapetala. For example, some individuals have relatively small, chartaceous leaves whereas others have larger, coriaceous leaves. In addition, some individuals have only one seed per fruit in contrast to,the 2-5 normally encountered and other individuals have the costae of the exocarp nearly missing (see image below).

Conservation: IUCN Red List: Not on list.

Uses: None recorded.

Etymology: The species epithet refers to the common occurence of six petals in this species. However, the petal number is somewhat variable throughout the range of the species.

Source: This species page is based on Mori in Prance & Mori (1979) and Mori and Boeke (1987).

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

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Gustavia hexapetala (Aubl.) Sm.: [Article] Prance, Ghillean T. & Mori, S. A. 1979. Lecythidaceae - Part I. The actinomorphic-flowered New World Lecythidaceae (Asteranthos, Gustavia, Grias, Allantoma & Cariniana). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21: 1-270.