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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Plantes nouvelles ou peu connues de la région amazonienne
Arch. Jard. Bot. Rio de Janeiro 5: 99-187. 1930

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Syntype -- W. A. Ducke
Specimen 2: Type -- W. A. Ducke

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori, Nathan P. Smith & G. T. Prance

Type: Brazil. Brazil: Amazonas, Rio Curuçá, near Maués, date unknown (fl, fr), Ducke RB 20589 (lectotype RB, selected by Prance in Prance & Mori, 1979; isolectotypes, G, K, P, S, U, US, VEN).

Description: Emergent trees, to 52 m tall. Trunk unbuttressed. Bark with well-developed vertical fissures, the ridges between the fissures 3-4 cm wide, the outer bark 5-10 mm thick, the inner bark 10-12 mm thick, distinctly laminated, red. Stems 2-3 mm diam., glabrous. Leaves present at anthesis: petioles 2-5 mm long; blades elliptic, 9-13 x 4-5 cm, the base obtuse, the margins crenulate, teeth with scars of caducous hairs, the apex acuminate; venation brochidodromous, the midrib pubescent, especially when young, the secondary veins in 12-15 pairs, with domatia in axils, these lined by hyaline hairs, the tertiary veins reticulate. Inflorescences spicate, once-branched, the flowers densely: pedicels short to appearing absent. Flowers 8-10 mm diam.; hypanthium globose, pubescent; calyx-lobes 6, narrowly ovate to narrowly triangular, 2 x 1 mm, pubescent, green; petals 6, membranous, oblong, 6 x 3 mm, white, pubescent, the margins fimbriate; androecium zygomorphic, fused at base to form a short staminal tube, prolonged on one side to form a staminal tube extension, the stamens ca. 60, inserted all over interior of staminal tube and extension, the filaments 0.2 mm long, the anthers versatile, dehiscence lateral; ovary with 4-6 ovules in each locule, the style 0.7 mm long, as thick as opening at base of staminal tube, apiculate at apex, the lower part densely pubescent. Fruits turbinate, 7-9 x 5.5-6 cm, the pericarp 11-20 mm thick, reddish to dark brown. Seeds 3-5 cm long (based on Mori et al. 20675).

Common names: Brazil: castanha de macaco (Ramos P23361 and many other collections), tauarí (fide Prance in Prance & Mori, 1979). Ducke (1930) points out that this name also refers to species of Couratari.

Distribution: Widely spread from the southwestern Brazilan Amazon to the central Brazilian Amazon. One collection was collected as far north as near Boa Vista in the state of Roraima.

Ecology: This species is a canopy to emergent tree that grows in non-flooded forest. Although it has a relatively wide distribution, it does not reach high densities per hectare. For example, Mori and Lepsch (1995) registered only 29 indviduals greater than 10 cm DBH in the 100 hectare Lecythidaceae plot at Km 41 (Reserve 1501) of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments project. Ducke (193) calls this a magnificent tree of virgen forests.

Phenology: Flowers mostly from the latter part of the dry season into the early wet season (Oct to Feb) and drops seed from the end of the wet season into the dry season (Jul to Oct) (Prance & Mori, 1979) in Reserva Ducke .

Pollination: No observations recorded.The flowers of other species of Cariniana have been described as aromatic and visited by many insects. However, it is not known if insects visit species of Cariniana to collect nectar or pollen.

Dispersal: The seeds are wind dispersed.

Predation: The seeds are heavily preyed upon by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). The monkeys knock the nearly mature fruits open by banging them against branches and eat the small seeds at the bottom of the seed wing. The banging can be heard up to 400 m away from the tree in which the capuchins are harvesting the seeds. Peres (1991) reports that about 69.5% of the predispersal seed crop is directly destroyed by the capuchins and another 30.1% is destoyed because the seeds remain trapped inside the preyed upon fruit and, thus, the seedlings are not able to get established after the seeds germinate.

Field characters: This species is characterized by its I) cylindrical trunk; 2) fissured, relatively thick, laminated outer bark and red inner bark; 3) serrulate leaf margins; 4) domatia in the axils of the secondary veins; 5) small, white flowers; and (6) turbinate, thick-walled fruits.

Taxonomic notes: According to Ducke (1930) Cariniana micrantha is closely related to C. pyriformis, The protologue (Miers, 1874) includes only a description and a drawing of the fruit. We have noted that the fruits of the two species are very similar except those of C. micrantha are greater in diameter than those of C. pyriformis. In correspondence between Ducke and H. Pittier and cited in the protologue, the latter suggests that the two species can be separated from one another by leaf features. Pittier stated this in a letter of 25 December 1928 to Ducke as follows: "Votre Cariniana n'est certainement pas ce que je considère comme C. piriformis[C. pyriformis] et je ne puis le rapporter à aucune des espèces décrites par Miers. Il diffère de notre plante du Vénézuéla et de Colombie par ses feuilles plus larges et peut être moins distinctement crénelées, la nervure principale plus épaisse, les primaires plus nombreuses et sans la membrane ciliée formant sac à leurs aisselles; en outre chez C. pyriflormis les feuilles sont finement ponctuees de blanc sur le revers et les pétioles sont largement marginés. Les feuilles sont donc très différentes, à tel point que leurs seuls caractères seraient suffisants pour distinguer les deux espèces. Mais si nous considérons les fleurs, nous trouvons également des écarts considerables dans les details. L'inflorescence est d'un autre type, les fleurs de la plante bresilienne sont plus petites, avec les pe'tales plus ou moins velus-tomenteux sur les deux faces, tandis qu'ils sont simplement pubescents au revers dans l'espèce vénézuélienne, etc. Vous dites que les fruits de votre plante sont semblables à ceux décrits par Miers, ce qui constituerait pour moi le seul caractère commun entre les deux espèces." Huang et al. (2008) transferred the atinomorphic-flowered species of Cariniana to the actinomorphic-flowered genus Allantoma.

Uses: The seeds are edible, but they are small and difficult to collect because they are dispersed by the wind. The empty fruits are used to make toys for children. The most valuable timbers among the neotropical species of Lecythidaceae are those belonging to species of Cariniana.

Etymology: The specific epithet refers to the small flowers. Species of Cariniana have the smallest flowers found in neotropical Lecythidaceae.

Conservation: IUCN Red List: not on list (IUCN, 2012).

Source: This species page is based on the protologue of Ducke (1930), Mori & Lepsch-Cunha, 1995 and Prance in Prance & Mori, 1979.

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to A. Tangerini, Y.-Y. Huang, and M. Rothman for allowing us to use their images to illustrate the characters of this species.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Cariniana micrantha Ducke: [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.
Cariniana micrantha Ducke: [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.