Taxon Details: Swartzia alternifoliolata Mansano
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Family:
Fabaceae (Magnoliophyta)
Fabaceae (Magnoliophyta)
Scientific Name:
Swartzia alternifoliolata Mansano
Swartzia alternifoliolata Mansano
Primary Citation:
Brittonia 51: 149. 1999
Brittonia 51: 149. 1999
Accepted Name:
This name is currently accepted.
This name is currently accepted.
Description:
Authors: Benjamin M. Torke and Vidal de Freitas Mansano
Type: Brazil. Espírito Santo: Mun. Pinheiros, Córrego Santa Rita de Cássia, 23 Nov 1991 (fl), V. de Souza 265 (holotype: UEC; isotypes: CVRD, K, NY).
Description: Tree to ca. 25 m; trunk to ca. 30 cm in diameter; bark scaly, exfoliating in irregular flakes; young branchlets glabrous to thinly minute-strigulose. Stipules triangular, 0.8-2.5 x 0.5-1 mm, minute-strigulose abaxially, glabrescent, persistent. Leaves imparipinnate, with 4-6 alternate or strongly subopposite lateral leaflets; petioles sometimes longitudinally bi-ridged above, 4.5-16.5 mm, glabrous or nearly so, pulvinus 1.7-3.9 mm, usually sparsely minute-strigulose; rachis subterete, usually somewhat bi-ridged above, 3.5-7.5 cm, glabrous or nearly so; stipels absent or relictual; petiolules 1.3-3.3 mm, glabrous to sparsely minute-strigulose; leaflet blades chartaceous, elliptic, 1.7-2.2 x as long as wide, 3.2-6.5 x 1.7-3.8 cm, sparsely micro-puncatate, with dark-colored glands, otherwise glabrous or nearly so, sometimes sparsely minute-strigulose on midrib below, base obtuse to rounded, apex narrowly acuminate, acumen rounded or retuse, 4-11 mm, midrib and higher order venation raised on both leaflet surfaces, secondary veins ca. 8-10 on each side of midrib, fairly straight, ascending at ca. 32-42°, curving distally and forming submarginal loops in distal half of leaflet with included intersecondary and tertiary veins parallel to secondaries. Inflorescences simple or compound racemes with a single order of branching, sometimes 2-several fascicled, borne in leaf axils, or on defoliate portion of branchlets just below leaves, several- to ca. 50-flowered; axes green, the primary ones 2-16 cm, thinly minute-strigulose; bracts triangular, 1.7-2.5 x 0.8-1.1 mm, glabrous adaxially, thinly strigulose abaxially, glabrescent; pedicels green, dorso-ventrally compressed, 4.5-12.7 mm, thinly strigulose on basal half to three quarters, glabrescent; bracteoles opposite to somewhat subopposite, usually inserted near center of pedicel, narrowly triangular to lanceolate, 0.9-1.3 mm, thinly strigulose abaxially, glabrescent; flower buds green, ellipsoid, 4.5-5.4 x 4.1-5 mm, glabrous. Calyx glabrous; segments 3-4, subequal, more or less elliptic, recurved, ca. 4-6 x 2.9-5.2 mm. Petal yellow or golden-yellow, glabrous, sometimes persistent after stamens dehisce; claw 2.3-3.8 mm; blade ovate to deltoid, often inequilateral, 6.9-10.3 x 6.3-9.4 mm, base broadly acute to truncate. Androecium glabrous, golden-yellow, the stamens dimorphic, arranged in two groups; stamens of the abaxial group larger than the others, usually 2, filaments somewhat dorso-ventrally compressed, apically tapering, ca. 5-6 mm, anthers elliptic in outline, 1.6-2 x 0.6-0.9 mm; stamens of the adaxial group ca. 33, filaments 4.8-7.6 mm, anthers elliptic in outline, 0.9-1.5 x 0.7-1 mm. Gynoecium light green, glabrous; stipe basally and apically dilated, 2.5-4.5 mm; ovary D-shaped in outline, somewhat laterally compressed, 2.5-3.3 x 1.5-2.1 mm, locule glabrous, ovules ca. 7; style lateral, perpendicular to ovary and inserted slightly below its apex, conical, 0.5-0.8 mm; stigma punctiform. Mature fruits known from photo, shortly estipitate; body plumply rounded-ellipsoid to nearly globose, the surface tuberculate, mottled light green and brown. Seed probably solitary plumply ellipsoid to globose; aril visibly cellular, lemon-yellow, completely enveloping seed.
Common names: No common names have been recorded.
Distribution: Known only from the coastal region of southern Bahia and northern Espírito Santo.
Ecology: Swartzia alternifoliolata has been collected in well-drained "mata de tabuleiro" rainforest over sandy or clay soils, usually on sloping terrain. The species sometimes persists in pasture or cutover secondary forest. Nothing else is known about its ecology.
Phenology: The existing collections with flowers were gathered in late November.
Taxonomic notes: Swatzia alternifoliolata was placed in section Recurvae by Torke and Mansano (2009), based on its possession of petalous flowers with bracteolate pedicels, a yellow petal, and a unicarpellate gynoecium with a punctiform stigma and the stipe usually somewhat longer than the ellipsoid ovary. Nevertheless, the species is morphologically isolated in the section, and its rounded-ellipsoid to globose fruits and relatively small flowers with only two larger stamens, relatively few smaller stamens, and a distinctly lateral style are suggestive of a relationship with section Swartzia or possibly section Digynae. As it is presently classified, the species is the only member of section Recurvae that occurs outside of greater Amazonia. The alternate leaflets that give the species its name are shared with S. microcarpa, another species of section Recurvae, but the coincidence is likely a result of parallelism. Although the species has not yet been sampled in phylogenetic analyses, we expect that it will prove to be phylogenetically isolated in the context of the genus.
Uses: No uses have been recorded.
Conservation status: Swartzia alternifoliolata is probably a critically endangered species. It is known from only a handful of localities in a small part of the wet Atlantic coastal region of Brazil, where most of the original forest has been lost. Of the remaining patches of forest in its likely range, few are well protected. The species has been recorded in the nominally protected Estação Experimental Gregório Bondar in Bahia. Measures should be undertaken to identify additional remaining populations, to gauge population size and recruitment, and to develop a conservation strategy for this highly distinctive species.
Authors: Benjamin M. Torke and Vidal de Freitas Mansano
Type: Brazil. Espírito Santo: Mun. Pinheiros, Córrego Santa Rita de Cássia, 23 Nov 1991 (fl), V. de Souza 265 (holotype: UEC; isotypes: CVRD, K, NY).
Description: Tree to ca. 25 m; trunk to ca. 30 cm in diameter; bark scaly, exfoliating in irregular flakes; young branchlets glabrous to thinly minute-strigulose. Stipules triangular, 0.8-2.5 x 0.5-1 mm, minute-strigulose abaxially, glabrescent, persistent. Leaves imparipinnate, with 4-6 alternate or strongly subopposite lateral leaflets; petioles sometimes longitudinally bi-ridged above, 4.5-16.5 mm, glabrous or nearly so, pulvinus 1.7-3.9 mm, usually sparsely minute-strigulose; rachis subterete, usually somewhat bi-ridged above, 3.5-7.5 cm, glabrous or nearly so; stipels absent or relictual; petiolules 1.3-3.3 mm, glabrous to sparsely minute-strigulose; leaflet blades chartaceous, elliptic, 1.7-2.2 x as long as wide, 3.2-6.5 x 1.7-3.8 cm, sparsely micro-puncatate, with dark-colored glands, otherwise glabrous or nearly so, sometimes sparsely minute-strigulose on midrib below, base obtuse to rounded, apex narrowly acuminate, acumen rounded or retuse, 4-11 mm, midrib and higher order venation raised on both leaflet surfaces, secondary veins ca. 8-10 on each side of midrib, fairly straight, ascending at ca. 32-42°, curving distally and forming submarginal loops in distal half of leaflet with included intersecondary and tertiary veins parallel to secondaries. Inflorescences simple or compound racemes with a single order of branching, sometimes 2-several fascicled, borne in leaf axils, or on defoliate portion of branchlets just below leaves, several- to ca. 50-flowered; axes green, the primary ones 2-16 cm, thinly minute-strigulose; bracts triangular, 1.7-2.5 x 0.8-1.1 mm, glabrous adaxially, thinly strigulose abaxially, glabrescent; pedicels green, dorso-ventrally compressed, 4.5-12.7 mm, thinly strigulose on basal half to three quarters, glabrescent; bracteoles opposite to somewhat subopposite, usually inserted near center of pedicel, narrowly triangular to lanceolate, 0.9-1.3 mm, thinly strigulose abaxially, glabrescent; flower buds green, ellipsoid, 4.5-5.4 x 4.1-5 mm, glabrous. Calyx glabrous; segments 3-4, subequal, more or less elliptic, recurved, ca. 4-6 x 2.9-5.2 mm. Petal yellow or golden-yellow, glabrous, sometimes persistent after stamens dehisce; claw 2.3-3.8 mm; blade ovate to deltoid, often inequilateral, 6.9-10.3 x 6.3-9.4 mm, base broadly acute to truncate. Androecium glabrous, golden-yellow, the stamens dimorphic, arranged in two groups; stamens of the abaxial group larger than the others, usually 2, filaments somewhat dorso-ventrally compressed, apically tapering, ca. 5-6 mm, anthers elliptic in outline, 1.6-2 x 0.6-0.9 mm; stamens of the adaxial group ca. 33, filaments 4.8-7.6 mm, anthers elliptic in outline, 0.9-1.5 x 0.7-1 mm. Gynoecium light green, glabrous; stipe basally and apically dilated, 2.5-4.5 mm; ovary D-shaped in outline, somewhat laterally compressed, 2.5-3.3 x 1.5-2.1 mm, locule glabrous, ovules ca. 7; style lateral, perpendicular to ovary and inserted slightly below its apex, conical, 0.5-0.8 mm; stigma punctiform. Mature fruits known from photo, shortly estipitate; body plumply rounded-ellipsoid to nearly globose, the surface tuberculate, mottled light green and brown. Seed probably solitary plumply ellipsoid to globose; aril visibly cellular, lemon-yellow, completely enveloping seed.
Common names: No common names have been recorded.
Distribution: Known only from the coastal region of southern Bahia and northern Espírito Santo.
Ecology: Swartzia alternifoliolata has been collected in well-drained "mata de tabuleiro" rainforest over sandy or clay soils, usually on sloping terrain. The species sometimes persists in pasture or cutover secondary forest. Nothing else is known about its ecology.
Phenology: The existing collections with flowers were gathered in late November.
Taxonomic notes: Swatzia alternifoliolata was placed in section Recurvae by Torke and Mansano (2009), based on its possession of petalous flowers with bracteolate pedicels, a yellow petal, and a unicarpellate gynoecium with a punctiform stigma and the stipe usually somewhat longer than the ellipsoid ovary. Nevertheless, the species is morphologically isolated in the section, and its rounded-ellipsoid to globose fruits and relatively small flowers with only two larger stamens, relatively few smaller stamens, and a distinctly lateral style are suggestive of a relationship with section Swartzia or possibly section Digynae. As it is presently classified, the species is the only member of section Recurvae that occurs outside of greater Amazonia. The alternate leaflets that give the species its name are shared with S. microcarpa, another species of section Recurvae, but the coincidence is likely a result of parallelism. Although the species has not yet been sampled in phylogenetic analyses, we expect that it will prove to be phylogenetically isolated in the context of the genus.
Uses: No uses have been recorded.
Conservation status: Swartzia alternifoliolata is probably a critically endangered species. It is known from only a handful of localities in a small part of the wet Atlantic coastal region of Brazil, where most of the original forest has been lost. Of the remaining patches of forest in its likely range, few are well protected. The species has been recorded in the nominally protected Estação Experimental Gregório Bondar in Bahia. Measures should be undertaken to identify additional remaining populations, to gauge population size and recruitment, and to develop a conservation strategy for this highly distinctive species.