Monographs Details:
Authority:

Smith, Albert C. & Wodehouse, R. P. 1938. The American species of Myristicaceae. Brittonia. 2: 393-527. f. 1-9.
Family:

Myristicaceae
Description:

Species Description - Tree 5-15 m. high; branchlets subterete or angled, striate, slender, when young minutely strigose (hairs 0.2-0.4 mm. long, attached by the middle), soon glabrous; petioles shallowly canaliculate, narrowly winged, 1-4 mm. broad including wings, 10-30 mm. long, strigose as the branchlets, glabrescent; leaf blades often minutely papillose or rugose on both surfaces, elliptic, 8-20 cm. long, 3.5-8 cm. broad, attenuate at base, obtusely short acuminate or cuspidate at apex, often glaucous and sparsely strigose beneath, soon glabrous, the costa shallowly grooved or plane above, the secondary nerves 8-14 per side, ascending, impressed or plane above, raised beneath; staminate inflorescences straight, slender, simple, fasciculate-racemose, strigose on all exterior surfaces (hairs usually 2-branched, 0.2-0.4 mm. in total length), 4-16 cm. long at anthesis, the peduncle up to 1.5 cm. long; fascicles alternate, 12-29 per inflorescence, each subtended by a bract (bracts chartaceous, semiorbicular, broadest at base, 1-1.5 mm. long, conspicuous and crowded in short young inflorescences, at length deciduous); flowers 2-13 per fascicle, the pedicels slender, 2-4 mm. long; perianth infundibuliforin or cupuliform, 3-4 mm. long, 3-lobed more than one-half its total length, the lobes oblong, obtuse; androecium 16-23 mm. long, the filainent column conspicuously swollen at base, 1.1-1.6 mm. long, the filaments slightly divergent at apex, the anthers 0.5-0.7 mm. long, free, often slightly recurved at apex; pistillate inflorescences 2-4 cm. long, slender, minutely puberulent or glabrous, the flowers solitary or paired on the rachis, the pedicels slender, 2-3 mm. long; ovary subglobose, rounded at base, glabrous, the stigma slightly swollen; fruiting inflorescences up to 7 cm. long, glabrous throughout, the mature fruits 2 or 3 per inflorescence, pedicellate (pedicels 5-12 mm. long), smooth or faintly carinate, 25-27 mm. long, 20-23 mm. broad, short stipitate at base, often cuspidate at apex, the pericarp 1-2 mm. thick, the seed 17-20 mm. long, 15-20 mim. broad, the testa brittle. (Fig. 3. a-c.)

Discussion:

Myristica Cumara Poepp.; A. DC. in DC. Prodr. 14: 199, as synonym of Myristica Otoba. 1856.

Myristica Cumaru Poepp.; A. DC. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 5 (1): 122, as synonyn of Myristica Otoba. 1860.

Myristica Otoba var. glaucescens A. DC. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 5 (1): 122. 1860

Type locality: Puerto Lim6on, Rio Marafion, Loreto, Peru.

This species, the only one of its genus known to occur south of Ecuador, has been confused in literature and herbaria with D. Otoba. However, the two species are remarkably distinct on inflorescence characters and can also be distinguished by the foliage. The genus is represented in Brazil only by the above-cited recent collections of Krukoff

Distribution:

Peru South America| Brazil South America|