Taxon Profile:

	The Plant List
	International Plant Name Index
	Tropicos
	Catalogue of Life
	Global Biodiversity Information Facility
	JSTOR Types
	JSTOR
	BHL
	Encyclopedia of Life
	WikiSpecies
	Google Scholar
	PubMed
	Morphbank
	IUCN
	National Center for Biotechnology Information
	Barcode of Life

Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Brittonia 33: 360. 1981

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Isotype -- W. C. Steward

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori & Nathan P. Smith

Type: Type. Brazil. Amazonas: Manaus-Caracarai Rd., km 130.5, 13 Feb 1974 (fl), Steward et al. P.20242 (holotype, INPA; isotypes, COL, F, MO, NY, OXF, P, U, US, VEN).

Description: Trees, to 27 m tall, but usually less than 20 m, the trunk cylindric. Bark with shallow, vertical fissures. Stems 6–9 mm diam. below uppermost leaf, rust-colored, rimose, with horizontally oriented scales. Leaves: petioles 12–20 mm long, glabrous, canalculate; blades narrowly obovate, 35-40 x 15-19 cm, chartaceous, glabrous, with whitish, papillate abaxial surface, the base obtuse, the margins entire to minutely crenulate, the apex abruptly acuminate; venation usually brochidodromous sometimes weakly eucamptodromous, the midrib prominent (but sometimes impressed towards apex) adaxially, salient abaxially, the secondary veins in 30-34 pairs, prominulous adaxially and prominent to prominulous abaxially, intersecondary veins present, prominent to prominulous, the tertiary veins reticulate. Inflorescences terminal, racemose, unbranched, the rachis 10–30 cm long, with 3-4 widely spaced flowers, the lower 3/4 without flowers, with horizontally elongated lenticels; pedicel/hypanthium usually sessile below articulation, 10-20 mm long above articulation, the bract cucullate, 35-50 x 20-25 mm, bracteoles cucullate, 15-1 7 x 10-12 mm, the margins fimbriate. Flowers when leaves present, ca. 11 cm diam.; hypanthium tapered, smooth, glabrous, presence of longitudinally oriented mucilage-bearing ducts not known; calyx-lobes 6, very widely oblong to widely ovate, 12-14 x 9-11 mm, glabrous, pink, the margins erose; petals 6, widely obovate, 45 x 30 mm, white adaxially, pink to red abaxially; androecium zygomorphic, a staminal lip present, the staminal ring with ca. 1000 densely packed stamens, the filaments ca. 3 mm long, unidimensional, white, the anthers 1 mm long, yellow, the hood flat, outer surface smooth, white, staminodes and vestigial stamens present, the staminodes proximal, swept inward, white with yellow anthers, the vestigial stamens distal, white, anterior hood extension present; ovary 4(-5)-locular, the ovary summit truncate, the ovules 4–9 per locule, inserted at the base of the septum, the style 7 mm long, stylar collar absent. Fruits dehiscent, depressed globose, 4.5-7 (without operculum) x 9-11 cm, the calyx-lobes peristent, reflexed, near base of fruit, the infracalycalycine zone 3–6 cm long, truncate to pedicel, the pedicel attachment prolonged into woody knob 1 x 2 cm, the supracalycine zone 1–2 cm long, erect, the pericarp 10–15 mm thick; operculum slightly convex, umbonate, the umbo ca. 15 mm long. Seeds 3–5 per fruit, 3-3.5 x 3-3.5 cm, the veins impressed; aril small, basal, white.

Common names: Brazil: jarana de folha grande.

Distribution: Restricted to central Amazonia.

Ecology: An understory tree of non-inundated forests.

Phenology: Flowers of this species have been collected in Feb, Jul, Aug, Sep, Nov. Fruits with mature seed are known from Apr and May.

Pollination: I observed bats entering the crown of an individual of this species at Reserve 1501 of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in central Amazonian Brazil. These observations were made from a tree adjacent to this individual (Mori et al. 20629) and demonstrated that it opens its flowers shortly after dusk and that the androecium and petals fall around 0800 the following morning. Sugar concentration of the nectar is between 7 and 8 percent. A bat was also observed entering the flower of another individual (Mori et al. 20706) at 1955.

Dispersal: No observations recorded but the aril may attract bats which in turn disperse the seeds.

Predation: No observations recorded.

Field characters: Lecythis barnebyi is easily recognized in the field by small, understory tree stature; bark with shallow vertical fissures and yellow inner bark; large leaves with a whitish cast to the abaxial leaf blade surface; unbranched, terminal inflorescence; large flowers with the petals white adaxially and red abaxially; and large seeds with a small basal aril.

Taxonomic notes: Lecythis barnebyi is morphologically similar to L. poiteaui from which it differs in its larger leaves with more pairs of lateral veins and adaxially pink to red instead of white or greenish-white petals. In addition, the leaves of L. barnebyi are widest above the middle instead of at the middle as in L. poiteaui. Both species possess papillate abaxial leafsurfaces and their floral structure is similar.

Conservation: IUCN Red List: Vulnerable D2 ver 2.3 (Pires O'Brien, J. 1998. Lecythis barnebyi. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 11 February 2013.).

Uses: None recorded.

Etymology: This species is named in honor of Rupert Barneby (1911-2000), a specialist in legumes (Fabaceae) and the moonseed family (Menispermaceae) and long-time associate of the Institute of Systematic Botany of The New York Botanical Garden.

Source: This species page is based on Mori in Mori & Prance (1990) and a recent evaluation (2012) of specimens at NY.

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

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Lecythis barnebyi S.A.Mori: [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.
Lecythis barnebyi S.A.Mori: [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.