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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Verh. Bot. Vereins Prov. Brandenburg 47: 163. 1905

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori and Ghillean T. Prance

Type: Brazil. Amazonas: Rio Jurué, Bom Fim, Nov 1900 (fl), Ule 5074 (holotype, B, destroyed; lectotype, G, here designated; photos F, GH, US; NY Neg No 8715; isotypes, HBG, KL, MG; F-frag.).

Description: Trees, to 55 m tall, the young branches glabrous or sparsely puberulous-glabrescent. Leaves in terminal clusters of 9-40, the blades narrowly oblanceolate to oblong-oblanceolate, 7.5-26 x 2.3-7.5 cm at broadest point 1.5-5 cm below apex, chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, glabrous above, glabrous beneath except for hirsute masses in axils of primary veins, the midrib more or less plane above, prominent and sparsely puberulous or glabrous beneath; lateral veins 16-22 pairs, plane above, prominent and glabrous beneath; apex rounded to bluntly acute at apex; base cuneate; margins entire, with minute glandular protrusions at primary nerve endings; petioles 1.5-3.8 cm long, terete, flattened above, not winged, glabrous or sparsely puberulous. Inflorescences ramiflorous or cauliflorous, racemose, the rachis glabrous, 7-180 cm long, pedicels 2-8 mm long, glabrous. Flowers 2-3 cm diam.; calyx-lobes triangular, 1-5 mm long, glabrous on exterior; petals oblong, 14-30 mm long, glabrous except for scattered hairs on margin, pale white, yellow, or yellow tinted pink on exterior; staminal ring 10-13 mm wide, with ca. 450 stamens, the anthers bright orange, the hood yellow, with distinct V-shaped notch at apex, with ca. 45-50 stamens at apex; hypanthium obconical, campanulate, 4-5 mm long, the style minute, not well-differentiated from summit of ovary. Fruits roundish, ca. 10-13 x 9-13 cm, the exocarp crustaceous, smooth, the calycine ring 7 cm diam., inserted ca. 1 cm below apex, with inconspicuous remnants of calyx-lobes persisting, the pulp sweet and nauseous smelling when fresh, sponge-like when dry. Seeds densely hirsute on exterior.

Common names: Peru: ayahuma, ayahúman. Brazail: castanheir do macaco, cuia de macaco, caeté de macaco.

Distribution: Found along the Amazon River and its major tributaries from Amazonian Peru to the mouth of the Amazon in Pará, Brazil. Couroupita guianensis is distributed around the fringe of the Amazon and popular accounts of it occuring along the Amazon are most likely misidentifications of C. subsessilis.

Ecology: Commonally found as a canopy tree in várzea forests.

Phenology: Flowering throughout the year.

Pollination: The flowers ofthis species are visited by small bees (Mori et aI., 1978) and wasps (Prance, 1976).

Dispersal: On an ecotour to the Amazon in July-August 2007, S. A. Mori spoke with two hunters independently. One a Tikuna Indian on the upper Solimões named Arturo who was chief of the village of Agua Limpa at the time and the other a guide temporarily hired by our group at a locality just upstream of the Mamirauá Várzea Reserve. Both claimed that the monkey they called macaco preto (presumably Cebus apella) , selects mature fruits by their aroma, bangs them on the tree to break them open, and eats the contents. It is likely that the monkeys are eating the pulp surrounding the seeds and then passing the seeds through their digestive tracts. If this is true, monkeys are dispersers of this species. Both informants said that hunters station themselves by trees of C. subsessilis to hunt monkeys visiting the trees.

Predation: No observations recorded.

Field characters: Couroupita subsessilis differs from the other species in its narrowly oblanceolate or lanceolata leaves, shorter pedicels, smaller androecium with a V-shaped cleft in the hood, and in its slightly smaller fruit.

Taxonomic notes: This species was very poorly known until 1977, when we sampled trees along the Amazon River from Manaus, Brazil to Iquitos, Peru. Ducke was the first to point out that Couroupita elata is synonymous with C. subsessilis. While the type of C. amazonica looks distinct from the type of C. subsessilis, our fieldwork has shown that there is a complete intergradation of the characters that were believed to separate the two species. In fact, leaves resembling both types can be found on the same tree. Couroupita subsessilis is abundant along the Amazon River from Iquitos to Manaus, and also occurs further east to near Santarem. The inflorescences of C. subsessilis are borne primarily on the trunk and largest woody branches of older trees. They keep growing indeterminately for many years, regularly producing flowers at the apex. The largest inflorescence branch measured by us was 180 cm long. The floral parts of this species turn bluish-green when crushed or bruised in a way similar to various species of Lecythis (Prance & Mori, 1977). The indehiscent fruits of this species fall to the ground and are frequently found under the parent tree rotting with the seeds germinating in the pulp.

Conservation: IUCN Red List: Not on list.

Uses: The pulp smells sweet but is nauseating and does not taste good. It is used by native people along the Amazon for chicken and pig food.

Etymology:

Source: This species page is based on Mori & Prance, 1990.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Couroupita subsessilis Pilg.: [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.