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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21(2): 203. 1990

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Description:

Author: S. A. Mori & G. T. Prance

Type: BRAZIL. Amazonas: Ega, 26 Nov 1819 (fl), Martius 2905 (lectotype, M, photo NY, designated Fl. Neotrop. Mongr. 1990; isolectotypes, BM--2 sheets, P, photos P at A & NY).

Description: Canopy trees, usually buttressed. Bark brown to very dark brown, rough to more or less smooth, not markedly fissured, thin, the outer bark to 1 mm thick, the inner 5--7 mm thick, the slash yellowish-white to yellowish-brown. Leaves not known to flush before anthesis: petioles 5-14 mm long; blades 9-26 x 4.5-12.5 cm, elliptic to narrowly elliptic or narrowly obovate to oblanceolate, chartaceous to coriaceous, glabrous, punctae present but not conspicuous, the base acute to rounded, the margins entire, the apex acuminate; secondary veins in 9-16 pairs, plane adaxially. Inflorescences terminal (suprafoliar) or axillary, unbranched or once-branched paniculate arrangements of racemes, the principal rachis puberulous or less frequently glabous, the axes often zig-zagged with pedicel bases persisting; pedicel/hypanthiium 10-22 mm long, tapered to articulation, not sulcate, puberulous. Flowers 3.5-5 cm diam.; calyx 6 six lobes, the lobes ovate to very widely ovate, 3-9 x 3-7 mm, horizontally to obliquely oriented at anthesis, thick, convex to somewhat carinate abaxially, the bases not or scarcely imbricate; petals 6, white; androecial hood 2-coiled, yellow. Fruits 3-4 (excluding operculum) x 3.5-8 cm, depressed globose, woody, more-or-less smooth, often drying black, the infracalycine ring a line, without enlarged, wood calyx-lobes, the supracalycine zone erect, the infracalycine zone truncate or abruptly tapered to pedicel, the pericarp 3-10 mm thick, the operculum convex, not or somewhat umbonate. Seeds to 10 per fruit, 2.5-3 x 1.5-2 cm, circular in cross-section; aril lateral, white.

Common names: Bolivia: palo charke (Thomas & Vandebroek, 2006). Brazil: matamatá, matamatá branco. Colombia: coco, coco majagua. Ecuador: cashnum. French Guiana. baikaaki (Paramaka), mahot blanc, mahot jaune, mahot noir. Peru: machimango blanco, machimango colorado. Surinam: bergi manbarklak, hoogland manbarklak. Venezuela: pocay-yek.

Distribution: A very wide spread species found in E Panama and NW Colombia and throughout the Guianas and the Amazon Basin.

Ecology: The most common species of Lecythidaceae. In central Amazonian Brazil, E. coriacea makes up 1519 trees of the 7,791 trees found in a 100-hectare plot (Mori et al., 2001). It is most commonly found in non-flooded forests on lower slopes and valleys and less commonly in periodically flooded forests. A study by ter Steege et al. (2013) concludes that E. coriacea is the third most abundant of the 16,000 species of trees with diameters over 10 cm that they estimate are found in the Amazon. This study, however, points out that there is considerable error in species identification in ecological studies of tree diversity in the Amazon.

Phenology: Eschweilera coriacea flowers most profusely from Aug to Dec in the Guianas and Amazonia. West of the Andes, flowers have been collected from Jan to Sep. In French Guiana, most species flower in October and November toward the end of the dry season and abundant seed fall has been recorded in the wet season in Mar and Apr (Mori & collaborators, 1987)

Pollination: No observations recordedThe coiled androecial hood produces nectar and this, along with the yellow androecial hood, suggests bee pollination.

Dispersal: No observations recorded.The seeds possess a lateral aril which probaly attracts animals. In French Guiana, Mori has observed that many seedlings are often found under mother trees and, on one occasion, he noted that the cotyledons of all of the seedlings were eaten over night.

Predation: The larvae of xylophagous beetles in the family Cerambycidae feed on the wood of fallen branches and tree trunks of E. coriacea. 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). Curculionidae (weevils) also attack the wood of this species in the same way (Fassbender et al., 2014). Norconk and Veres (2011) report that a species of Chriopotes and a species of Chiropotes eat young seeds of this species.

Field characters: This species is characterized by its canopy stature; brown to very dark brown bark with a yellowish-white to yellowish-brown slash; buttresses; leaves with the lower midrib of the adaxial surface plante; calyx-lobes with gibbous bases; white petals and yellow androecial hood; and dark-colored fruits that are erect above and truncate below the supracalycine zone.

Taxonomic notes: This is a very wide spread species and, like most species with a large range, it is difficult to be positive that all collections identified as E. coriacea represent this species. Thus, there is the possibility that more than one species is included within herbarium collections identified by us as E. coriacea. Nevertheless, we are convinced that collections from populations as widely separated as Panama and French Guiana represent this species.

Conservation: IUCN Red List: Not on list.

Uses: A tea made from the bark is used as a remedy for stomach aches. The tea is made by boiling a piece of bark until the water turns yellowish (Thomas & Vandebroek, 2006). The bark is fibrous and can be used for making trump lines, tying together temporary shelters, and making a tree-climbing loop called a peconha in Brazilian Portuguese.

Etymology: The specific epithet means "leathery" and most likely alludes to the texture of the leaves.

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

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to C. Galdames (SCZ) for allowing us to use the image below to illustrate the characters of this species.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Eschweilera coriacea (DC.) 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 coriacea (DC.) 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.