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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Trop. Woods 42: 31. 1935

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori, X. Cornejo & G. T. Prance

Type: Ecuador. Foot of Western Cordillera, 1931 (fr), Rimbach 47 (lectotype, F-herb. no. 677029, designated by Mori & Prance (1990); isolectotype, F-herb. no. 677045).

Description: Understory trees, 4 to 15 m tall, without buttresses. Bark light gray or brown, smooth to slightly warty. Stems 5-8 mm diam., sparsely lenticellate, the lenticels vertically oriented, the younger stems often gray. Leaves present at flowering; petioles 10-30 mm long; blades narrowly oblong, 26-50 x 7.5-20 cm., glabrous, chartaceous, punctate abaxially, the apex acuminate to very long acuminate, the base obtuse to rounded, the margins entire, slightly revolute; venation brochidodromous throughout length, the secondary veins in 20-28 pairs, these impressed above, salient below, joining superadjacent veins to form marginal vein, intersecondary veins present, the tertiary veins reticulate, sometimes weakly percurrent. Inflorescences cauline or ramiflorous, from warty outgrowths on trunk of older trees, these not conspicuous on young trees, unbranched or infrequently once-branched racemes, the rachis 6-30 cm long, lenticellate, the pedicels 10 mm long, glabrous, without conspicuous lenticels. Flowers 5-7 cm diam.; calyx with six lobes, the lobes very narrowly lanceolate, 3.5-4 x 4-5 mm, not imbricate, convex, somewhat carinate abaxially, flat adaxially; petals six, widely obovate, 25-30 x 15-18 mm, reddish-violet or purple; hood of androecium with triple coil, reddish-violet; staminal ring with ca. 200 stamens, staminal ring lip absent, the filaments clavate, 1.5 mm long, the anthers 0.5 mm long; hypanthium tapered, ca. 15 mm long, glabrous at maturity, ferrugineous when young, the trichomes sometimes persisting at base, without conspicuous lenticels; ovary 2-locular, each locule with five ovules attached to placenta on floor of locule, the style curved, 3.5 mm long. Fruits depressed globose, 10 x 20 cm, the pericarp leathery when fresh, woody when dried, ca. 2-3 mm thick when dried, the operculum convex, umbonate. Seeds 6-8 per fruit, wedge-shaped in cross section, 5.5-6 x 3-5 cm, with fleshy, yellow white half I-beam aril on inner edge.

Common names: Ecuador: angua de mono (El Oro Province fide X. Cornejo, 2007). piñuela (Fide A. Rimbach 47).

Distribution: Eschweilera rimbachii is occurs from between 500 and 2000 m in the Andes and the western slopes of the Andes in western Ecuador and southwestern Colombia.

Ecology: An understory tree usually found in wet forests, especially in premontane cloud florest. It occurs in primary forest and remant patches of primary forest.

Phenology: This species has been collected in flower in Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, and Aug, and in fruit with seed in Oct, Nov, Jan, Mar, Apr, May, and Jun.

Pollination: Jette Knudsen and Bertil Ståhl (pers. comm. to S. A. Mori, 2009) report that the Cerro Samama population of this species has scentless flowers visited by long-tongued bees.

Dispersal: No records recorded but the lateral aril may attract dispersal agents.

Predation: No observations recorded.

Field characters: This species is characterized by its understory habit; non-buttressed trunk; light gray bark with relatively large lenticels; relatively large leaves often with long apices and conspicuous marginal vein; cauline or ramiflorous, simple to less frequently once-branched inflorescences with long rachises; red to purple petals and androecial hood; triple-coiled androecial hood; depressed globose fruit; wedge-shaped seeds in cross-section, and half I-beam shaped arils that dry and persist in herbarium specimens.

Taxonomic notes: Eschweilera rimbachii is morphologically similar to E. caudiculata from which it differs by its longer leaves, more pronounced marginal vein, and larger seeds. Both species have a lateral aril which contrasts with the spreading aril found in other red-flowered species of this genus, e.g., E. integrifolia and E. andina. The collection Clark & Watt 799 (search for the collection under "Collections") has a very rugose hypanthium and abaxial calyx-lobe surfaces which appear to be natural, i.e., not an abnormality caused by some kind of plant pest. We have not been able to find other characters that different it from other collections of E. rimbachii and, thus, include it in that species.

Uses: Wood used for construction (fide A. Rimbach 47).

Conservation: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies this species as Vulnerable B1+2c ver 2.3.

Etymology: The specific epithet honors A. Rimbach, the collector of the type.

Source: Based on Mori and Prance (1990)

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Eschweilera rimbachii Standl.: [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.