Monographs Details:
Authority:
Mori, S. A. 1987. The Lecythidaceae of a lowland Neotropical Forest: La Fumée mountain, French Guiana. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 44: 1-190.
Mori, S. A. 1987. The Lecythidaceae of a lowland Neotropical Forest: La Fumée mountain, French Guiana. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 44: 1-190.
Family:
Lecythidaceae
Lecythidaceae
Description:
Latin Diagnosis - Ab E. decolorans cortice sculpto; marginibus calycis undulatis; et fructibus laevibus differt.
Species Description - Medium-sized tree, to 30 m tall. Bark gray, smooth, with irregular depressions left by sloughing bark, the outer bark less than 1 mm thick, the inner bark 7-10 mm thick, light yellow. Leaf blades elliptic, 9-22 x 5-8 cm, glabrous, without punctae, chartaceous, with 9-13 pairs of lateral veins; apex acuminate; base acute, obtuse, or rounded; margins entire; petiole 7-15 mm long. Inflorescences terminal, less frequently axillary, racemose, the rachis 4.5-20 cm long, glabrous, the pedicel 12 mm long, glabrous. Flowers turn a distinct bluish-green when bruised; calyx with six ascending, markedly imbricate, widely oblong lobes, 12-17 x 11-14 mm, the margins slightly undulate; petals white; hood of androe-cium with double coil, white outside, yellow inside; filaments white, the anthers yellow; hypan-thium glabrous; ovary 2-locular, each locule with ca. nine basally attached ovules, the summit elevated, the style obconical, not well differentiated from summit. Fruits cup-shaped, the calycine ring always inserted above middle, the supra-calycine zone erect to abruptly tapered inward, always less than 1 cm wide, the infracalycine zone obtuse to rounded at base, 2.5-5 x 4.5-7 cm (excluding operculum), the pericarp 5-8 mm thick, the outside dotted with numerous white lenticels; operculum slightly convex, with low rounded umbo. Seeds with lateral aril.
Latin Diagnosis - Ab E. decolorans cortice sculpto; marginibus calycis undulatis; et fructibus laevibus differt.
Species Description - Medium-sized tree, to 30 m tall. Bark gray, smooth, with irregular depressions left by sloughing bark, the outer bark less than 1 mm thick, the inner bark 7-10 mm thick, light yellow. Leaf blades elliptic, 9-22 x 5-8 cm, glabrous, without punctae, chartaceous, with 9-13 pairs of lateral veins; apex acuminate; base acute, obtuse, or rounded; margins entire; petiole 7-15 mm long. Inflorescences terminal, less frequently axillary, racemose, the rachis 4.5-20 cm long, glabrous, the pedicel 12 mm long, glabrous. Flowers turn a distinct bluish-green when bruised; calyx with six ascending, markedly imbricate, widely oblong lobes, 12-17 x 11-14 mm, the margins slightly undulate; petals white; hood of androe-cium with double coil, white outside, yellow inside; filaments white, the anthers yellow; hypan-thium glabrous; ovary 2-locular, each locule with ca. nine basally attached ovules, the summit elevated, the style obconical, not well differentiated from summit. Fruits cup-shaped, the calycine ring always inserted above middle, the supra-calycine zone erect to abruptly tapered inward, always less than 1 cm wide, the infracalycine zone obtuse to rounded at base, 2.5-5 x 4.5-7 cm (excluding operculum), the pericarp 5-8 mm thick, the outside dotted with numerous white lenticels; operculum slightly convex, with low rounded umbo. Seeds with lateral aril.
Discussion:
Type. Brazil. Amazonas: Municipality of Humaitá, on plateau between Rio Livramento and Rio Ipixuna, 7-18 Nov 1934 (fr), Krukoff 7183 (holotype, NY; isotype, MO). Eschweilera laevicarpa is most closely related to the sympatric E. decolorans (Figs. VI-6, 7). These are the only two described species of the genus that show a bluish-green coloration when their flowers and fruits are bruised, a feature also found in all species of Couroupita and several species of Lecythis (Prance & Mori, 1977; Mori & Prance, 1981). Both occur in French Guiana where we have observed them flowering with only slight phenological separation (Fig. XI-4) and growing in similar habitats. The new species differs from E. decolorans in its sculptured instead of non-sculptured bark; slightly undulate instead of non-undulate calyx-lobe margins; smooth instead of rough fruit exterior; and rounded instead of truncate fruit base (Fig. IV-4). A more detailed description of the bark is provided in Chapter VIII.
Type. Brazil. Amazonas: Municipality of Humaitá, on plateau between Rio Livramento and Rio Ipixuna, 7-18 Nov 1934 (fr), Krukoff 7183 (holotype, NY; isotype, MO). Eschweilera laevicarpa is most closely related to the sympatric E. decolorans (Figs. VI-6, 7). These are the only two described species of the genus that show a bluish-green coloration when their flowers and fruits are bruised, a feature also found in all species of Couroupita and several species of Lecythis (Prance & Mori, 1977; Mori & Prance, 1981). Both occur in French Guiana where we have observed them flowering with only slight phenological separation (Fig. XI-4) and growing in similar habitats. The new species differs from E. decolorans in its sculptured instead of non-sculptured bark; slightly undulate instead of non-undulate calyx-lobe margins; smooth instead of rough fruit exterior; and rounded instead of truncate fruit base (Fig. IV-4). A more detailed description of the bark is provided in Chapter VIII.
Distribution:
French Guiana South America|
French Guiana South America|