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Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori and Ghillean T. Prance

Type: Peru. Loreto: Sylvae obscuris ad Yurimaguas, Dec 1830(fl), Poeppig 2094 (lectotype, W; isolectotype, W fide Mori in Prance & Mori, 1979).

Description: Once or few-branched pachycaul trees, usually 10 m or less tall. Stems thick 7-20 mm diam., the leaves in one or more clusters at their ends, the petiole scars diamond-shaped, tightly congested. Bark brown, nearly smooth. Leaves present at anthesis; petioles 5-90 X 4-15 mm, usually semicircular in cross section, sometimes more flattened and concave adaxially and carinate abaxially; blades narrowly obovate or oblanceolate, 40-120 x 8-38 cm, glabrous or minutely puberulous on abaxial veins, the lower part of blade narrowly tapered to base, the base acute or cuneate, the margins entire, minutely serrulate, or serrate, the apex acuminate; venation brochidodromous, the midrib salient ad- and abaxially, the secondary veins in 27-49 pairs, plane or prominulous adaxially, salient abaxially, intersecondary veins short, less than 1.5 cm long, abruptly arching downward to join subadjacent secondary vein, the tertiary and higher order veins reticulate. Inflorescences cauline, racemose, with 5-16 flowers, the rachis 15-70 mm long; pedicels 30-70 mm long, subtended by a single ovate to oblong, rounded basal bract 2.5-6 x 2-5 mm and bearing at or slightly below middle 2 ovate, cucullate bracteoles 2-5 x2-8 mm. Flowers 6-16.5 cm diam; hypanthium usually with 4 costae, rusty-ferruginous- or cinereous-pubescent; calyx-lobes 4, broadly triangular or shallowly rounded lobes, 2-4 x 6-18 mm; petals 8(-9), narrowly obovate to oblanceolate, 30-80 x 10-45 mm, densely pubescent in bud, puberulous at anthesis, pale purple to dark red, sometimes rose-pink, for most of length, the bases white or light yellow; connate androecial base 6-20 mm high, pale yellow, the outermost filaments 12-25 mm long , yellow basally, pale to dark purple apically; anthers 2-5 mm, yellow; ovary 4(-6) locular, white pubescent at summit, the style short, 1-1.5 mm long, obconical; stigma with 4 lobes. Fruits globose, truncate at apex, 5-10 cm diam., green then purple at maturity. Seeds hemispherical on one side, flat on other sides, 30 x 20 mm, the seed coat thin, fragile, purple colored with a dense, white colored reticulate pattern superposed on purple at seed maturity and when fresh, the hilar scar distinct; aril not well devloped, not contorted.

Common names: Colombia: cocora (Smith et al., 2007). Peru. sacha-chope (Plowman & Schunke V. 11621, Vásquez et al. 4664), sacha-manga (Mexia 6228a), tripa de pollo (Smith et al., 2007). Brazil: chopé (Smith et al., 2007)

Distribution: This species is mostly western Amazonian in distribution where it occurs in southern Colombia, most of Amazonian Ecuador, and northern Peru. There are two disjunct populations, one in central Amazonian Brazil just south of the Amazon River near Manaus and another in extreme eastern Amazonian Peru near Puerto Maldonado. The disjunct distributions may, however, reflect the failure to collect it in the intervening areas.

Ecology: Understory trees of terra firme moist or wet fortests and the higher parts of floodplain forests.

Phenology: Collections of Gustavia longifolia in flower have been gathered in Brazil in Jun and Dec; in Colombia in Nov and Dec; in Ecuador in Jan, May, Aug, and Nov; in Peru in Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Nov, and Dec. Fruits have been collected in Brazil in Jun and Jul; in Ecuador in Jan, Feb, Jun, Aug, and Sep; in Peru in Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Jul, and Aug. In species of Gustavia fruits are often present before the end of the flowering season so one can predict when fruits will be ripe if the local flowering season is known.

Pollination by Carlos Magdalena: I have noted that the flowers of G. longifolia open at night and the pollen is released on the following morning under green house conditions. I experimented with buzzing the stamens by using a tuning fork and this released the pollen. If this is not done or presumably if no insect visits to buzz the flower in the field then the pollen falls onto the receptacle as the flowers senesce. Despite my repeated attempts to pollinate the flowers, not a single fruit has been produced from this species at Kew . This may suggest that G. longifolia is self-incompatible (but spontaneous seed set has been recorded in other species such as G. poeppigiana). There are no field observations of the pollination of G. longifolia, but this observation in a cultivated species is interesting because Lecythidaceae specialist S. A. Mori has observed the pollination of Gustavia augusta in French Guiana. The genus is known to be bee pollinated and the flowers of G. augusta are visited by small trigonid bees in the day and by a larger bee (Megalopta genalis) before daybreak. The smaller trigonids fill their pollen baskets in a single flower so they do not appear to be efficient pollinators. Thus, Mori and Boeke (1987) concluded that G. augusta is more efficiently pollinated by Megalopta genalis that buzz pollinates the flowers for a short time and flys away to another flower. Since G. longifolia also flowers at night it is possible that it is also pollinated by a night-flying bee, but open anthers have not yet been observed before daybreak.

Dispersal: Squirrel monkeys have been observed eating the pulp surrounding the seeds of this species but it is not known if they disperse them (Smith et al., 2007).

Predation: No observations recorded.

Field characters: This species is recognized in the field by its usually small size but taller trees have been reported on herbarium labels; few-branched habit; thick stems with large leaves aggregated toward their apices; cauline inflorescences; hypanthia that are finely costate for the length of the fruit; 4 broadly triangular or rounded calyx-lobes; 8 petals that are dark pink in color except for white or yellow at their bases; fruits depressed globose in shape, but truncate at apex, and purple colored at maturity; seeds with fragile seed coat. The fruits appear to be green when immature and purple when mature.

Taxonomic notes: In this species, the color of the petals includes varying intensities of pink but it is usually darker pink than it is in other species of the genus. Flower color has to be used with caution for distinguishing this species as well as other species of the family because: 1) it may or may not change with age, 2) may vary from one population to another of a species, 3) may vary depending on the intensity of the flash used to take a picture, i.e., an intense flash may make the flower appear more white that it really is, and 4) different collectors describe colors differently to such an extent that flower color descriptions from labels should not be relied on too heavily unless it has been confirmed by the descriptions of a number of different collectors. The thickness of the rachis as well as the size of the flowers varies from the northernmost populations in Colombia where they are larger than those found in populations in Ecuador and Peru. The type of Gustavia magna represents the larger flowered population in Colombia. The seeds of this species seem to have a reticulate venation pattern in the seeds which can be seen in the images of the fresh seeds photographed by Nigel Smith and the dried seeds of Pennington et al. 12215.

Uses: The yellow pulp surrounding the seeds is edible and tastes similar to Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa or the seeds of the sapucaia (Lecythis pisonis). The seeds are not eaten. The Bora Indians of Amazonian Peru and the Waorani of the Ecuadorian Amazon cultivate the tree (Smith et al., 2007). Gustavia longifolia is cultivated in a moist tropical environment in a glasshouse at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and has the potential for cultivation in other glasshouses as well as in botanical gardens in subtropical and tropical climates. Information about its cultivation and propogation can be found in the attached article about this species. Gustavia seeds have been reported (Wyatt & Broyles, 1997) as capable of regenerating small plantlets from pieces of cotyledons, so one seed can produce more than a single plant if the seed is split into multiple pieces. Some medicinal properties have been reported, e.g., Lewis et al. 9974 state that the leaves and stems are boiled in water and the resulting solution is used as an emetic.

Etymology: The species epithet refers to the long leaves of G. longifolia but similar leaves are also a feature of numerous other species of the genus.

Conservation status: This species is not listed in The IUCN Red List of Endangered species version 2011.2. Its relatively wide distribution and presence in areas with considerable forest support this conculsion.

Source: Based on Mori in Prance and Mori (1990) and Prance and Mori (2010).

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Gustavia longifolia Poepp. ex O.Berg: [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.