Monographs Details:
Authority:
Pennington, Terence D. 1981. Meliaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 28: 1-359, 418-449, 459-470. (Published by NYBG Press)
Pennington, Terence D. 1981. Meliaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 28: 1-359, 418-449, 459-470. (Published by NYBG Press)
Family:
Meliaceae
Meliaceae
Synonyms:
Persoonia guareoides Willd., Amapa guianensis (Aubl.) Steud., Carapa latifolia (C.DC.) Willd., Carapa nicaraguensis C.DC., Granatum guianense (Aubl.) Kuntze, Granatum nicaraguense (C.DC.) Kuntze, Guarea muacronulata C.DC., Carapa macrocarpa Ducke, Carapa slateri Standl., Carapa guyanensis
Persoonia guareoides Willd., Amapa guianensis (Aubl.) Steud., Carapa latifolia (C.DC.) Willd., Carapa nicaraguensis C.DC., Granatum guianense (Aubl.) Kuntze, Granatum nicaraguense (C.DC.) Kuntze, Guarea muacronulata C.DC., Carapa macrocarpa Ducke, Carapa slateri Standl., Carapa guyanensis
Description:
Species Description - Young branchlets thick, rufous-brown, lenticellate. Leaves paripinnate, clustered at ends of branchlets, often with a vestigial, tomentose, glandular or varnished terminal leaflet, (40-)50-75(-90) cm long; rhachis prominently lenticellate; petiolules swollen, 4-15 mm long. Leaflets opposite, (3-)4-8(-10) pairs, usually elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, sometimes elliptic-oblong rarely lanceolate, tapering from middle to an acute, obtuse, or broadly acuminate apex, base oblique, very asymmetrical, (10-)18-40(-50) cm long, (4-)6-14(-18) cm broad, coriaceous, bright glossy green above, glabrous or with a sparse tomentum of simple hairs on midrib and especially at apex; lateral nerves 6-20 pairs. Inflorescence large spreading, much-branched, axillary or subterminal, subtended by sterile subulate bracts, (20-)35-60(-80) cm long, sometimes with a scurfy pubescence, terminal cymules clustered. Flowers unisexual, waxy, mostly sessile sometimes subsessile, or very rarely with a stout, glabrous or scurfy-pubescent pedicel to 5 mm long. Calyx 4-lobed, outer two lobes smaller than inner, glabrous or occasionally with sparse farinose tomentum, margin ciliolate, lobes ovate or rounded, 1.5-1.75 mm long. Petals 4, free, ovate to obovate, 4.5-6.0(-7.0) mm long, margin ciliolate, rarely with a farinose pubescence. Staminal tube cylindrical or urceolate, 3.5-5 mm long, divided at apex into 8 truncate, emarginate or irregularly lobed appendages, glabrous inside and out; anthers or antherodes 8, sessile, alternating with appendages, included within tube. Nectary cushion- or saucer-shaped, strongly ridged. Ovary in [female] flowers quadrangular, glabrous, 4-locular, partially sunken into nectary, with 2-4(-6) ovules per loculus; style very short, stout, 1.52 mm long; style-head discoid, thick, glandular. Pistillode in [male] flowers slender, angular, with well-developed loculi; vestigial ovules very small; style slender, 35 mm long; style-head thin, non glandular. Capsule globose, subglobose or weakly quadrangular, 4-valved, each valve woody or sub woody with 4 verrucose ridges, 5-10(-12) cm long, 6-8(-10) cm diam, sometimes short umbonate; seeds 1-2 per valve, angular due to mutual compression, 4.0-5.0 cm diam.; surface opposite hilum rounded; sarcotesta dark brown, smooth or minutely pitted. Cotyledons large, fused. Field characters. A deciduous or semi-evergreen tree with a large, very dense crown of several erect or arching branches, up to 55 m in height, though most commonly reaching 25-35 m; bole with short buttresses ca. 2 m tall, free of branches for 20-30 m. The crown casts a very heavy and dense shade. Bark smooth, light grey to greyish brown, sometimes reddish, smooth, with shallow fissures; scaling in flat squarish plates or in characteristic horizontal strips. Inner bark pinkish-brown or red, fibrous; wood pinkish. The flushes of young leaves are a brilliant wine-red allowing the tree to be quickly and easily recognized in the forest. A few collectors mention that the inflorescences are sometimes cauliflorous. The flowers are white or creamy white with a pinkish tinge on the outside of the petals and the staminal tube is often orange at the apex. The nectary is recorded as being orange-yellow. Flowers are faintly scented, with a rather musky odour. Flowering time is apparently very variable. In Central America trees flower from January to May, similarly on the Caribbean Islands; in Guyana from January to July, and in Ecuador and Venezuela from September to December. They appear to flower all the year round in Brazil. Fruiting also occurs throughout the whole year, the large capsules taking about a year to mature; usually only one or two develop per infructescence. Marshall (1939) states that the fruit only breaks after impact with the ground. This has also been observed in C. procera in Central Africa (BTS). Seeds are probably distributed by water and rodents are known to eat those from trees growing on drier land and thereby probably disperse them (Fanshawe, 1947). [Although not recorded from Mexico as a native plant, seeds of a Carapa (?C. guianensis) have been picked up from the sea shore in Quintana Roo, presumably carried there by ocean currents (Puerto Morelos, 20°50'N, 86°52'W, Moreno s.n. (MEXU)]. The tree and its fruits are attacked by the parasite Hypsipyla spp. Becker (1973) records larvae of H. grandella Zell, from the shoots and those of H. ferrealis (Hamp.) from the seeds of C. guianensis.
Species Description - Young branchlets thick, rufous-brown, lenticellate. Leaves paripinnate, clustered at ends of branchlets, often with a vestigial, tomentose, glandular or varnished terminal leaflet, (40-)50-75(-90) cm long; rhachis prominently lenticellate; petiolules swollen, 4-15 mm long. Leaflets opposite, (3-)4-8(-10) pairs, usually elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, sometimes elliptic-oblong rarely lanceolate, tapering from middle to an acute, obtuse, or broadly acuminate apex, base oblique, very asymmetrical, (10-)18-40(-50) cm long, (4-)6-14(-18) cm broad, coriaceous, bright glossy green above, glabrous or with a sparse tomentum of simple hairs on midrib and especially at apex; lateral nerves 6-20 pairs. Inflorescence large spreading, much-branched, axillary or subterminal, subtended by sterile subulate bracts, (20-)35-60(-80) cm long, sometimes with a scurfy pubescence, terminal cymules clustered. Flowers unisexual, waxy, mostly sessile sometimes subsessile, or very rarely with a stout, glabrous or scurfy-pubescent pedicel to 5 mm long. Calyx 4-lobed, outer two lobes smaller than inner, glabrous or occasionally with sparse farinose tomentum, margin ciliolate, lobes ovate or rounded, 1.5-1.75 mm long. Petals 4, free, ovate to obovate, 4.5-6.0(-7.0) mm long, margin ciliolate, rarely with a farinose pubescence. Staminal tube cylindrical or urceolate, 3.5-5 mm long, divided at apex into 8 truncate, emarginate or irregularly lobed appendages, glabrous inside and out; anthers or antherodes 8, sessile, alternating with appendages, included within tube. Nectary cushion- or saucer-shaped, strongly ridged. Ovary in [female] flowers quadrangular, glabrous, 4-locular, partially sunken into nectary, with 2-4(-6) ovules per loculus; style very short, stout, 1.52 mm long; style-head discoid, thick, glandular. Pistillode in [male] flowers slender, angular, with well-developed loculi; vestigial ovules very small; style slender, 35 mm long; style-head thin, non glandular. Capsule globose, subglobose or weakly quadrangular, 4-valved, each valve woody or sub woody with 4 verrucose ridges, 5-10(-12) cm long, 6-8(-10) cm diam, sometimes short umbonate; seeds 1-2 per valve, angular due to mutual compression, 4.0-5.0 cm diam.; surface opposite hilum rounded; sarcotesta dark brown, smooth or minutely pitted. Cotyledons large, fused. Field characters. A deciduous or semi-evergreen tree with a large, very dense crown of several erect or arching branches, up to 55 m in height, though most commonly reaching 25-35 m; bole with short buttresses ca. 2 m tall, free of branches for 20-30 m. The crown casts a very heavy and dense shade. Bark smooth, light grey to greyish brown, sometimes reddish, smooth, with shallow fissures; scaling in flat squarish plates or in characteristic horizontal strips. Inner bark pinkish-brown or red, fibrous; wood pinkish. The flushes of young leaves are a brilliant wine-red allowing the tree to be quickly and easily recognized in the forest. A few collectors mention that the inflorescences are sometimes cauliflorous. The flowers are white or creamy white with a pinkish tinge on the outside of the petals and the staminal tube is often orange at the apex. The nectary is recorded as being orange-yellow. Flowers are faintly scented, with a rather musky odour. Flowering time is apparently very variable. In Central America trees flower from January to May, similarly on the Caribbean Islands; in Guyana from January to July, and in Ecuador and Venezuela from September to December. They appear to flower all the year round in Brazil. Fruiting also occurs throughout the whole year, the large capsules taking about a year to mature; usually only one or two develop per infructescence. Marshall (1939) states that the fruit only breaks after impact with the ground. This has also been observed in C. procera in Central Africa (BTS). Seeds are probably distributed by water and rodents are known to eat those from trees growing on drier land and thereby probably disperse them (Fanshawe, 1947). [Although not recorded from Mexico as a native plant, seeds of a Carapa (?C. guianensis) have been picked up from the sea shore in Quintana Roo, presumably carried there by ocean currents (Puerto Morelos, 20°50'N, 86°52'W, Moreno s.n. (MEXU)]. The tree and its fruits are attacked by the parasite Hypsipyla spp. Becker (1973) records larvae of H. grandella Zell, from the shoots and those of H. ferrealis (Hamp.) from the seeds of C. guianensis.
Discussion:
Carapa macrocarpa Ducke (1922) is placed in the synonymy above since the author himself later admits (1925) that the type material he cited is based on a mixture of leaves of C. guianensis and fruits (which are described as having been picked up from the ground in a state of putrefaction with seeds each as large as a single fruit of C. guianensis) of an unknown liane!I agree with Holdridge and Poveda (1975) and others, that C. nicaraguensis cannot be maintained as a species distinct from C. guianensis. The flowers of the former are generally described as pedicellate but those of the latter may be sessile, subsessile or sometimes pedicellate (with stout pedicels up to 5 mm long). The scurfy or farinose pubescence of the leaflets, flowers and pedicels used by Noamesi (1958) as a differentiating character is extremely variable, occurring sporadically throughout the entire range of the African and New World species. I have found no correlation between presence or absence of pubescence and any other feature.There are many literature references reporting the occurrence of C. guianensis in Africa, which may in part be due to the similarity of this name and C. guineensis Sweet ex Adr. Jussieu (=C. procera A. P. de Candolle). Oliver (1868) added further to the confusion by using the name C. guyanensis for the African taxon. It is probably due to the resulting confusion that Guillemin and Perrottet loc. cit. attempted to correct the error by renaming C. guineensis as C. touloucouna, realizing that the two species are different. So far C. guianensis has only been reported from the New World, whilst C. procera occurs widely in tropical Africa and locally on the continent of South America.This is a timber tree of some considerable local importance in South America, especially in Venezuela and Surinam where it is heavily exploited; it is being tried as a plantation species in Brazil and on some Caribbean islands. The species is grown as an ornamental on several of the Caribbean Islands and appears to be naturalized in Guadeloupe. The tree never reaches large dimensions, but the wood is in very many respects similar to that of true mahogany (Swietenia) but it is harder and heavier and lacks its lustre and colour. Two types of Carapa timber are recognized by foresters, red and white. Red or Hill crab wood is said to be superior to white and is obtained from trees growing on higher land. White crab wood is derived from those growing on swampy flat ground. The timber is used in high class joinery, furniture, house and boat building. The seeds are the source of an oil for lamps and is also used in soap and candle making and as an insect repellent. The tree is protected for these purposes in Pará State (Brazil).Trees in the forest are often found swarming with ants which visit the extrafloral nectaries at the shoot apices and on the tips of the leaflets.
Carapa macrocarpa Ducke (1922) is placed in the synonymy above since the author himself later admits (1925) that the type material he cited is based on a mixture of leaves of C. guianensis and fruits (which are described as having been picked up from the ground in a state of putrefaction with seeds each as large as a single fruit of C. guianensis) of an unknown liane!I agree with Holdridge and Poveda (1975) and others, that C. nicaraguensis cannot be maintained as a species distinct from C. guianensis. The flowers of the former are generally described as pedicellate but those of the latter may be sessile, subsessile or sometimes pedicellate (with stout pedicels up to 5 mm long). The scurfy or farinose pubescence of the leaflets, flowers and pedicels used by Noamesi (1958) as a differentiating character is extremely variable, occurring sporadically throughout the entire range of the African and New World species. I have found no correlation between presence or absence of pubescence and any other feature.There are many literature references reporting the occurrence of C. guianensis in Africa, which may in part be due to the similarity of this name and C. guineensis Sweet ex Adr. Jussieu (=C. procera A. P. de Candolle). Oliver (1868) added further to the confusion by using the name C. guyanensis for the African taxon. It is probably due to the resulting confusion that Guillemin and Perrottet loc. cit. attempted to correct the error by renaming C. guineensis as C. touloucouna, realizing that the two species are different. So far C. guianensis has only been reported from the New World, whilst C. procera occurs widely in tropical Africa and locally on the continent of South America.This is a timber tree of some considerable local importance in South America, especially in Venezuela and Surinam where it is heavily exploited; it is being tried as a plantation species in Brazil and on some Caribbean islands. The species is grown as an ornamental on several of the Caribbean Islands and appears to be naturalized in Guadeloupe. The tree never reaches large dimensions, but the wood is in very many respects similar to that of true mahogany (Swietenia) but it is harder and heavier and lacks its lustre and colour. Two types of Carapa timber are recognized by foresters, red and white. Red or Hill crab wood is said to be superior to white and is obtained from trees growing on higher land. White crab wood is derived from those growing on swampy flat ground. The timber is used in high class joinery, furniture, house and boat building. The seeds are the source of an oil for lamps and is also used in soap and candle making and as an insect repellent. The tree is protected for these purposes in Pará State (Brazil).Trees in the forest are often found swarming with ants which visit the extrafloral nectaries at the shoot apices and on the tips of the leaflets.
Distribution and Ecology: Widely distributed from Belize along the Atlantic coast of Central America (also on the Pacific slope in Costa Rica); in South America from Colombia to Brazil, Ecuador and in Amazonian Peru. Also in eastern Cuba the Dominican Republic, the Windward Islands, Trinidad, and Tobago. Very common, and in places growing in almost pure stands. Generally on swampy ground, at the edges of mangrove swamps, along river banks and in low-lying wet forest which is seasonally or permanently flooded. In Brazil the tree seems to thrive on both terra firme (in virgin rain forest) and on varzea land. Normally from sea level to 350 m alt. In Ecuador and in Venezuela, particularly in the state of Yaracuy, it may occur on mountain slopes up to 1400 m alt.
Distribution:
Guatemala Central America| Izabal Guatemala Central America| Belize Central America| Toledo Belize Central America| Belize Central America| Honduras Central America| Gracias a Dios Honduras Central America| Atlántida Honduras Central America| Nicaragua Central America| Zelaya Nicaragua Central America| Costa Rica South America| Puntarenas Costa Rica Central America| Limón Costa Rica Central America| Panama Central America| Veraguas Panama Central America| San Blás Panama Central America| Canal Zone Panamá Central America| Bocas del Toro Panamá Central America| Chiriquí Panamá Central America| San Blás Panama Central America| Colón Panama Central America| Cuba South America| Dominican Republic South America| Distrito Nacional Dominican Republic South America| Duarte Dominican Republic South America| Guadeloupe South America| Grenada South America| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines South America| Martinique South America| Dominica South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America|
Guatemala Central America| Izabal Guatemala Central America| Belize Central America| Toledo Belize Central America| Belize Central America| Honduras Central America| Gracias a Dios Honduras Central America| Atlántida Honduras Central America| Nicaragua Central America| Zelaya Nicaragua Central America| Costa Rica South America| Puntarenas Costa Rica Central America| Limón Costa Rica Central America| Panama Central America| Veraguas Panama Central America| San Blás Panama Central America| Canal Zone Panamá Central America| Bocas del Toro Panamá Central America| Chiriquí Panamá Central America| San Blás Panama Central America| Colón Panama Central America| Cuba South America| Dominican Republic South America| Distrito Nacional Dominican Republic South America| Duarte Dominican Republic South America| Guadeloupe South America| Grenada South America| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines South America| Martinique South America| Dominica South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America|
Common Names:
Carapa, Crabwood, bastard mahogany, Warawere, Andiroba, Masábolo, Tangarillo, Tangaré, cedro bateo, cedro macho, Najesí, Acajou, Cabirma de Guinea, Carapa blanc, Carapa rouge, Crappo, Crappowood, Carapa, Crabwood, Krappa, Krappaboom, Carapa
Carapa, Crabwood, bastard mahogany, Warawere, Andiroba, Masábolo, Tangarillo, Tangaré, cedro bateo, cedro macho, Najesí, Acajou, Cabirma de Guinea, Carapa blanc, Carapa rouge, Crappo, Crappowood, Carapa, Crabwood, Krappa, Krappaboom, Carapa