Smith, Albert C. & Wodehouse, R. P. 1938. The American species of Myristicaceae. Brittonia. 2: 393-527. f. 1-9.
Myristicaceae
Species Description - Tree up to 10 m. high; branchlets slender; petioles rugose, shallowly canaliculate, often narrowly winged distally, 1-2 (-3.5) mm. in diameter, 7-12 (-20) mm. long; leaf blades coriaceous, oblong-elliptic, 10-20 (-35) cm. long, 2.5-9 (-12) cm. broad, acute to attenuate at base, ob- tusely cuspidate or short acuminate at apex (acumen up to 15 mm. long), often shining above, the secondary nerves 5-12 per side, ascending, raised above, prominent beneath, the tertiary nerves faintly raised or plane on both surfaces, the veinlets usually obscure; staminate in- florescenees minutely strigose on all exterior surfaces including perianths (hairs usually 2-branched, 0.1-0.3 mm. in total length), at length glabrous, at anthesis 4-15 cm. long, narrowly paniculate, the rachis usually simple, rarely 2-3-branched near base, bearing alternate lateral branches 2-10 mm. long, the peduncle up to 1.5 mm. long; flowers aggregated in irregular fascicles of 5-25 at ends of lateral branches, the pedicels slender, up to 2 mm. long; perianth thin carnose, often glandular- pellucid-punctate, 1.8-3 mm. long, 3 (rarely 4 or 5) -lobed about one-half its total length or slightly more, the lobes deltoid-oblong, obtuse or subacute; androecium 1.3-2.3 mm. long, the filament column carnose, 0.5-1.2 mm. long, the filaments sometimes free distally, the anthers 4-7 (rarely 10), 0.6-1.5 mm. long (usually subequal to the column or slightly longer), free, recurved, usually obtuse; pistillate inflorescenees resembling the staminate or more compact, the flowers sometimes 2 or 3 in sessile fascicles, the perianth carnose, the ovary ellipsoid, minutely strigose (hairs 4-6-branched or often 2-branched), the stigma cleft; fruiting inflorescences not known.
Myristica capitellata A. DC. in DC. Prodr. 14: 697. 1857.
Compsonentra Tessrnannii Markgraf, Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin 9: 964. 1926.
Type locality: Rio Huallaga, "Maynas alto," Peru.
Native name: Senimoro-ey (Huitoto Indians, Rlo Putumayo).
Ducke 19576 is accompanied by detached fruits which are very different fron all others in the family, as pointed out by the collector (6: 214). These fruits are woody, glabrous, obovoid-ellipsoid, 30-40 mm. long, 22-30 mm. broad, faintly carinate on one side, rounded at apex, often lightly furrowed, estipitate; the pericarp is about 3 mm. thick; the seed is attached at base and completely fills the cavity. There is no indication of an aril, and this fact, together with the texture of the seed, seems to indicate that the fruit belongs neither to Compsoneura nor to the family. Although the fruit of C. capitellata is not known, it will presumably resemble that of C. Sprucei, since the two species differ very slightly on other characters. The key characters enable separation of the species, but in the case of certain Peruvian plants the differences are slight.
Peru South America| Brazil South America|