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Additional Resources:

Family:

Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Pflanzenr. (Engler) IV, 219a: 93. 1939

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Isotype -- H. F. Pittier

Description:

Author: Scott A. Mori

Type: Same as for Eschweilera verruculosa Pittier

Description: Understory to canopy trees, usually 7-20, infrequently 40 m tall, the bole usually unbuttressed. Bark grayish or brown, nearly smooth or with shallow vertical fissures. Leaves: petioles 8-20 mm long; blades elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 13-27 x 5-9.5 cm, chartaceous, the base obtuse to rounded, the margins entire, the apex acuminate; secondary veins in 10-15 pairs, not impressed adaxially. Inflorescences axillary or terminal (suprafoliar), unbranched, the rachis 2-9 cm long, glabrous to puberulous; pedicel/hypanthium 3-9 mm long, truncate at articulation, not sulcate, often with raised warty, reddish-brown lenticels. Flowers 3.5-5 cm diam.; calyx with lobes very widely ovate, 7-11 x 7-10 mm, erect or obliquely oriented at anthesis, not thick, convex abaxially, concave adaxially, the bases imbricate for much of length; petals white to creamy white but sometimes tinged with yellow especially at the bases; androecial hood with double coil, light yellow. Fruits 3-8 cm diam., cup-like or shallowly cup-like (excluding operculum), broadly turbinate (with operculum) wider than long, the calycine ring with calyx-lobes persisting as prominent woody knobs, the supracalycine zone erect, the infracalycine zone rounded to pedicel, the pericarp 3-8 mm thick, often light brown with darker redish-brown lenticels, the operculum convex, not umbonate. Seeds: aril lateral.

Common names: Panama: ollito. Colombia: guasco. Ecuador: guasca

Distribution: From Costa Rica, where it is rare, through Panama and into NW South America in the Cauca and Magdalena Valleys and S along the coast to NW Ecuador.

Ecology: Wet forests at low low elevations (below 500 m)

Phenology: A single fertile collection in fruit from Costa Rica but numerous collections in flower from Panama from Jun to October with a peak in Aug. Flowering collections from Colombia were made in Jun and Jul. A fruit with seed was collected in Panama in Mar.

Pollination: The presence of nectar as a pollinator reward and the white petals and at least somewhat yellow androecial hood suggest that this species is bee pollinated but there are no documented observations of this.

Dispersal: The lateral aril is probably consumed by animals but there are no observations of this nor for any species of Eschweilera.

Taxonomic notes: This species is characterized by the relatively short, unbranched inflorescences; verrucose hypanthium tapered into the pedicel and difficult to distinguish from it; markedly imbricate calyx-lobes; light brown fruits with darker reddish-brown lenticels and very conspicuous, knob-like, woody calyx lobes; and seeds with a lateral aril. Eschweilera verruculosa Pittier is a later homonym of E. verruclosa (O. Berg) Miers which is a synonym of E. albiflora (DC.) Miers and represents an entirely different species of Eschweilera. Thus, the species was renamed by R. Knuth (1939) as E. pittieri based on the same type.

Uses: None reported

Etymology: The species epithet honors H. Pittier who made many contributions to the study of Costa Rican, Panamanian, and Venezuelan Lecythidaceae

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Eschweilera pittieri R.Knuth: [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.