Monographs Details – Vascular Plants of the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

Monographs Details:

Authority:

Sleumer, Hermann O. 1980. Flacourtiaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 22: 1-499. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family:

Salicaceae

Scientific Name:

Casearia arborea (Rich.) Urb.

Synonyms:

Samyda viridiflora Aubl., Samyda arborea Rich., Chaetocrater capitatus Ruiz & Pav., Samyda niviana Poir., Casearia capitata (Ruiz & Pav.) Pers., Casearia stipularis Poir. ex Spreng., Casearia incana Bertero ex Spreng., Casearia ulmifolia Vahl ex Vent., Casearia serrata Macfad., Casearia lanceolata Miq., Casearia hostmanniana Steud. ex Griseb., Casearia brasiliensis Eichler, Casearia poeppigii Eichler, Casearia oligantha Eichler, Casearia cambessedesii var. angustifolia Eichler, Casearia cambessedesii var. parvifolia Eichler, Guidonia stipularis (Vent.) M.Gómez, Samyda virgata Sessé & Moc., Casearia bangii Rusby, Casearia glaziovii Briq., Casearia sylvestris subvar. campestris Eichler, Casearia cambessedesii Eichler, Casearia umbellifera Benoist, Casearia glaberrima Uittien

Description:

Species Description - Shrub or tree up to 8.0, occasionally up to 16.0 m high; trunk up to 20.0 cm diam; bark whitish, mottled. Branchlets puberulous at tips, older parts early glabrescent, covered with grayish-brownish cork and numerous lenticels. Leaves more or less narrowly oblong, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, apex shortly to caudately acuminate, tip acute or bluntish, base more or less manifestly inequilateral, acute to rounded, firmly membranaceous to chartaceous, sometimes subcoriaceous with age, more or less distinctly discolorous, darker and shining on the upper glabrous surface, the puberulous midrib and lateral nerves excepted, paler and generally dull gray-tomentellous to merely -puberulous all over the undersurface, glabrescent with age, sometimes glabrous from the beginning though always bearing some short hairs on midrib and lateral nerves beneath, often dark brown in dry specimens, closely serrulate, pellucid-punctate and -lineolate to various density, variable in size, 5.0-12.0 cm long, 2.0-4.5 cm broad, lateral nerves (4-)5-7 (rarely -10) pairs, rather steeply curved-ascending, flat above, slightly raised beneath, reticulation of veins and veinlets rather lax and slightly prominent, often obscured by the tomentum beneath; petiole slender, usually puberulous, 2.0-5.0(-8.0) mm long; stipules narrowly ovate, puberulous, 6.0-10.0 mm long, ca 2.0 mm broad at base, caducous. Inflorescences axillary, fasciculate-capitate, the fascicles (3-)10-25 (-30, -50)-flowered, generally shortly (up to 4.0 mm) pedunculate, though sometimes hardly so, or even sessile; pedicels articulate at or slightly below middle, puberulous, 2.0-4.0 mm long. Sepals 5, oblong, united at base to a (very) short 5-angular tube, white or yellowish-greenish, puberulous to subglabrous on both faces, 3.5-4.5 mm long, ca 1.5 mm broad. Stamens 10; filaments slightly alternately inequilong, glabrous, 2.0-2.5 mm long; anthers didymous, subglobose, 0.5 mm diam, with a dorsal apical glabrous or hairy gland. Disk-lobes clavate-linear, barbate, 1.5 mm long. Ovary elongate-ovoid, slightly 3-angular, glabrous below, hairy at the upper attenuate part or style; stigma capitate. Capsule ellipsoid-subglobose, apiculate, 6-angular, red to violet, 4.0-5.0 mm long, hairy at apex, finally splitting into 3 valves; pericarp thin; seeds 2-6, ellipsoid, ca 2.0 mm long; testa minutely foveolate; aril fimbriate-lacerate.

Distribution and Ecology - Guatemala to Panama, Greater Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela, in the Guianas, Trinidad, E Ecuador, E Peru, Brazil (southwards to Rio de Janeiro/Guanabara), NE Bolivia; in wet forest, gallery forest, semideciduous forest transitional to cerrado or campo, also in secondary growth; mainly in lowland, though ascending occasionally to 1600 m, on lateritic clay or sandy soil, locally common. Sometimes difficult to distinguish from C. grandiflora as are glabrous forms from such of C. ulmifolia. Not known with certainty from Mexico.