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Family:

Capparaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Description:

Author : Xavier Cornejo

Description: Shrubs or trees, to 20 m tall, covered by stellate trichomes. Leaves alternate or spirally arranged; petioles 0.2-3(-5) cm long; blades oblong, elliptic, obovate or widely oblanceolate, 7-18(-22) x 3-7(-10) cm, foliaceous to chartaceous when dry, the base cuneate to rounded, the apex long-acuminate; lateral veins in 6-9(-12) pairs. Inflorescences axillary, panicles, stellate; peduncles 5-60 mm long; pedicels 15-30 mm long. Flowers: sepals triangular, 4-6 mm long, densely stellate abaxially; petals oblanceolate, divergent, 3-10 x 1.5-3 mm, greenish-white to pale yellowish-green abaxially, the base subsessile, the apex rounded; nectary scales four; stamens numerous, the filaments 1.5-4.2 cm long, white; gynophore 1.5-5 cm long, the ovary green. Fruits pendulous amphisarca, globose to oblongoid, (3-)5-8(-10) x 4-7(-9) cm, green without, the pulp creamish or white. Seeds (1-)3-10-(26), the embryo white.

Common names: Not recorded.

Distribution: Nicaragua to Ecuador, Venezuela, the Guianas and Brazil from 50 to 900 m.

Ecology: In tropical and premontane primary wet forests, also in remnant forests.

Phenology: In Costa Rica, this species flowers from Feb to Jun, and in Sep; and fruits from Feb to Aug (Zamora, 1989). On the Osa Peninsula, P. pittieri has been collected in flower in Mar, Apr, Sep and Oct; and in fruit from from Mar to Aug and in Nov.

Pollination : On the Osa Peninsula, the flowers of this species are visited by two species of bees (Cornejo & Aguilar 8031 [NY]); the pollinators are still unknown.

Dispersal: The seeds are pressumably dispersed by mammals.

Taxonomic notes: This species was previously known as Capparis pittieri Standl.

Conservation: Least Concern (LC).

Uses: Not recorded.

Etymology: This species was named after H. Pittier, a swiss engineer who collected the type, and who organized the National Herbarium of Costa Rica in San José (Dwyer, 1973).