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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Amer. J. Bot. 26: 410. 1939

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Holotype -- B. A. Krukoff

Description:

Author: Ghillean T. Prance & Scott A. Mori

Type: Brazil. Amazonas: Municipality of São Paulo de Olivença, Creek Belém, Oct-Dec 1936 (fl), Krukoff 8893 (holotype, NY; isotypes, A, BM, BR, F, G, K, LE, MICH, MO, P, S, U, US).

Description: Trees, to 45 m tall, the trunk usually buttressed, the buttresses to 4 m tall; stems puberulous, soon becoming glabrous. Leaves not flushing in association with anthesis; petioles 5-12 mm long, stellate puberulous, slightly canaliculate, distinctly winged when young; blades elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 5-10(-14) x 2.5-8 cm, chartaceous, with several longitudinal parallel lines near to margins and parallel to midrib, glabrous adaxially, sparsely stellate pubescent (especially on midrib) or rarely almost glabrous abaxially, the base subcuneate to cuneate, the margins crenulate, the apex cuspidate to acuminate or rarely acute, the acumen 0-8 mm long; secondary veins in 11-22 pairs, prominulous on both surfaces, the midrib prominulous adaxially, prominent abaxially, the tertiary venation prominulous on both surfaces. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, simple racemes or of once branched paniculate arrangements of racemes, the rachis light brown stellate tomentellous, the flowers subtended by a bract ca. 12 mm long, oblong-Ianceolate, caducous; pedicels articulate, 2-3 mm long below, 2-7 mm long above articulation, stellate tomentellouse. Flowers and leaves present at same time; hypanthium campanulate, ca. 4 mm long; calyx lobes 6, orbicular-ovate, rounded, 3-5 mm long, tomentellous on both surfaces, the margins ciliate; petals 6, oblong to ovate, 2-3 cm long, stellate tomentellous abaxially, glabrous adaxially, usually white or cream colored, infrequently yellow; androecium glabrous except on hood, with staminal ring ca. 10 mm in diam., the stamens 40-45, inserted evenly around staminal ring in several rows, the hood yellow or white, echinate, the appendages shortly pilose on margins. Fruits asymmetrical-campanulate, broadest below calycine ring, 5-11 x 3-5 cm, the pericarp ca. 2 mm thick, the calycine ring 3-15 mm below apex, the sepals prominent, forming a 6-partite ridge, the operculum not radially grooved, centrally convex, the columella markedly triangular. Seeds oblong-Ianceolate, 4-7 x 1.2-1.6 cm, symmetrical. Seedling with opposite oblong cotyledons, 4-5 x 2.5-3.2 cm, the first leaves alternate, elliptic (fide Schulz 7651).

Common names: Guyana: Wadera. Surinam: Ingipipa (Sranan Tongo), oelemari, oolemari kharomeroo (Arawak).

Distribution: In the Guianas, western and central Amazonian Brazil, and Amazonian Colombia and Venezuela.

Ecology: An emegent tree of non-flooded forests. This species has a relatively wide distribution and occurs in relatively high densities (Procópio et al., 2010)

Phenology: Collected in flower from Sep to Jan.

Pollination: Mori and Boek (1987) observed a large black bee (probably a species of Xylocopa or possibly Eulaema nigrita) visiting many flowers. In flight, the bee made a clear, strong buzzing sound which ceased when it entered a flower. By timing the quiet intervals, we estimated that the bee remained in the flowers from 35 to 55 seconds. Another smaller bee, probably a euglossine, made early morning visits (0640) to the flowers. It completely disappeared into the flower for about 30 seconds.

Dispersal: The seeds of this and other species are dispersed by the wind. The wing is derived from the seed coat as indicated by the presence of an exotesta (Tsou & Mori, 2002).

Predation: Norconk and Veres (2011) report that a species of Ateles and a species of Chriopotes masticate and eat the seeds of this species.

Field characters: Couratari stellata is characterized by its stature as an emergent tree with usually buttressed trunks; leaf blades usually with parallel striations running their length; flowers and leaves on the tree at the same time, i.e., leaf flush is not associated with anthesis; petals white and the androecial hood yellow; echinate andorecial hood externally; and non-lenticellate fruits.

Taxonomic notes: This species belongs to Couratari sect. Echinata which includes the following species: C. asterophora, C. asterotricha, C. macrosperma, C. pyramidata, C. scottmorii, and C. stellata. This section is characterized by an echinate androecial hood (see images of the androecium on the species pages of C. macrosperma, C. scottmorii, and C. stellata). Prance also notes that the species possess short pedicels and sessile fruits with well developed calyx scars. In addition, the flowers of these species are not produced when the trees are leafless, have white petals, white to yellowish androecial hoods, and the pubescence of the inflorescence rachises and hypanthia are yellowish-brown in color. There is no sign of the pink to purple flower coloration and leaf fall just before flowering found in the other two sections of the genus (sects. Couratari and microcarpa). The pubescence of species of sect. Couratari is purple tinged and the species of sect. microcarpa are glabrous. The species of sect. Echinata form a superspecies (Prance in Mori & Prance, 1990) and are difficult to distinguish from one another. In addition, Several of the species, especially those from eastern Brazil, where four of the six species occur, are known from relatively few collections; thus, it is not yet possible to say if the differences among them provided in their protologues merit recognition at the species level. The abundant collections from Surinam demonstrate that there is complete overlap in leaf and fruit size between the individuals represented by the types of C. reticulata and C. stellata. Couratari reticulata was described from a fruiting collection with mature leaves from sterile branches whereas, C. stellata was described from flowering branches which normally have smaller leaves. Consequently, Prance (in Mori & Prance, 1990) reduced C. reticulata to synonymy. The fertile flowering branches from other Guianan collections are a good match with the Amazonian type of C. stellata. The name C. stellata is used in preference to C. reticulata, which was published in the same article, because much more material has been distributed under the former name. Variation in fruit and leaf size has also been observed in two trees growing side by side at Rio Jutaí, Amazonas, Brazil (Prance et al. 22900, 22918). In addition, one tree was buttressed to 4 m and the other was without buttresses. The androecial base of one was yellow whereas the other was pink. The wood of C. stellata has an unpleasant, dung-like smell.

Uses: The inner bark is used as a cigarette paper.

Etymology: The species epithet refers to the stellate trichomes found on the leaves, inflorescences, and flowers.

Source: This description was originally published in Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21(11). 1990 under the authorship of G. T. Prance but S. A. Mori prepared this version.

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Carol A. Gracie and Bobbi Angell for allowing us to use their images ard line art to illustrate the characters of this species.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Couratari stellata A.C.Sm.: [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.
Couratari stellata A.C.Sm.: [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.