Parmentiera macrophylla Standl.
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Authority
Gentry, Alwyn H. 1980. Bignoniaceae--Part 1. (Crescentieae and Tourrettieae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-130. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bignoniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type. Panama. Bocas del Toro: region of Almirante, Cooper 402 (holotype, F; isotypes, K, US).
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Description
Species Description - Small to medium-sized tree to 30 cm dbh. and 25 m tall, the trunk usually erect and unbranched for much of its length, the crown open; twigs terete, glabrous to slightly and inconspicuously puberulous. Leaves mostly opposite, sometimes subalternate, often ± fasciculate, 3-foliolate (very rarely with an extra basal leaflet), the leaflets rhomboid-elliptic, acuminate to acute, basally attenuate, the terminal leaflet 6.8-20 cm long, 2.6-5.9 cm wide, the lateral leaflets 4.7-17 cm long, 1.8-5.5 cm wide, membranaceous, secondary veins 5-7 on a side, somewhat lepidote or deciduous-lepidote, especially beneath, otherwise glabrous except for a ciliate fringe of short simple trichomes along the margins of the well developed axillary domatia beneath, usually with a few plateshaped glands along the midvein beneath, drying dark olive above, pale olive beneath; petiolules winged but more or less differentiated from the decurrent leaflet bases, the terminal petiolule to 3.5 cm long, the lateral petiolules to 1.1 cm long, the petiole unwinged except on immature plants, furrowed above, glabrous, 3.6-7.2 cm long. Inflorescence of one or 2 flowers borne along the trunk, the pedicels lepidote. Flowers with the calyx spathaceously split, 2.6-5.0 cm long, 0.8-1.2 cm wide, basally lepidote, otherwise mostly glabrous with a conspicuously glandular epidermis when fresh; corolla pure white with a faint greenish tinge outside, tubular-campanulate with an inconspicuous saccate bulge in the floor of the throat, fleshy, 4.9-6.3 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide at the mouth, the tube 3.6-4.5 cm long, the 3 lower lobes 0.8-1 cm long, the upper 2 fused half their length, glabrous throughout except for a few glandular-lepidote enations at the level of stamen insertion, the epidermis conspicuously glandular; stamens subexserted, the anther thecae thick, 1.5-2 mm wide, partially divergent, 5-6 mm long, the anterior filaments 3.3-3.8 cm long, inserted 1.5-1.7 cm from the base of the tube, the posterior filaments 3.3-3.8 cm long, inserted 1.7-2.1 cm from the base of the tube, the staminode 4-16 mm long, sometimes totally fused to the corolla tube; pistil 5.7-5.9 cm long, the ovary narrowly cylindric, octagonal in cross section, 6-7 mm long, 2 mm wide, glabrous with a glandular epidermis, the ovules ca. 6-seriate in each locule; disc annular-pulvinate, 1.5 mm long, 5 mm wide. Fruit cylindric with conspicuous longitudinal ribs, suboctagonal in cross section, 44-50 cm long, ca. 6 cm wide when fresh and 2.8 cm wide when dried, waxy yellow when fresh, drying black, divided into a fleshy part outside the seeds and a fibrous core inside the seeds; seeds small, thin, 3-6 cm long, 8-9 cm wide, with a distinct, narrow mucilaginous wing when fresh.
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Discussion
One problematical collection which may belong to this species is not included in the above description. This is Dressier 3679 (F, MO) from Cerro Jefe, Panamá Province, Panama. It is described as cauliflorous and the leaves are identical with those of P. macrophylla but the single preserved flower is much smaller (calyx 1.7 cm long, pedicel 0.9 cm long, corolla 2.5 cm long, 2 cm wide at mouth of tube) than in other material of P. macrophylla.
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Distribution
Costa Rica South America| Alajuela Costa Rica Central America| Limón Costa Rica Central America| Panama Central America| Bocas del Toro Panamá Central America| Coclé Panamá Central America|