Esenbeckia pilocarpoides Kunth
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Authority
Kaastra, Roelof C. 1982. A monograph of the Pilocarpinae (Rutaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 33: 1-198. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Rutaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small tree 2-5(-7.5) m tall with trunk 4-5(-12?) cm in diam.; branchlets 2-4 mm in diam., dark grayish-brown, grayish-green when young, glabrous but appressed-puberulous when young with hairs to 1.5 mm long. Leaves alternate or subopposite, often crowded at tips of branches, l(-3)-foliolate, with sessile leaflets; petiole ± terete, (slightly) winged, 8-40(-60) mm long, the base slightly tumid or not but rather thick in fast-grown shoots, tubercle usually absent, glabrous or puberulous with straight hairs 0.1-0.2 mm long; leaflet blade rather variable in outline, (narrowly) ellptic to (narrowly) (sub)obovate, 6-25.5 × 2.1-8 cm, (mainly shortly) attenuate or occasionally subcuneate at base, acuminate at apex with obtuse acumen 4-15(-30) mm long, or occasionally retuse, the margin subrevolute, the blade chartaceous-subcoriaceous, dull and deep green above when fresh, paler beneath, glabrous on both sides, rarely subglabrous at the basal part of the midvein, venation brochydodromous to sometimes slightly camptodromous, prominent on both sides, midvein prominent above. Inflorescences terminal or axillary near tips of the branchlets, erect, narrowly paniculate, not longer than the leaves, ca. 5-16 × 2-8 cm, densely minutely pubescent with hairs 0.10.5 mm long; side-branchlets alternate, 1-7 mm long; bracts (very broadly) ovate, concave to cucullate, 0.6-2.5 × 0.5-1.2(-2) mm, subglabrous; pedicels 1-4 mm long; bractlets 2, subopposite or alternate, one or both sometimes subtending a secondary pedicel. Flowers 5-8 mm in diam., scentless; calyx lobes quincuncial, adnate to the petals at very base, subcircular, 1.1-1.5 × 1.2-2 mm, rounded or obtuse at apex, softly coriaceous, ciliate or fimbriate, facially glabrous, with 810 parallel nerves branching here and there towards the tip; petals persistent, imbricate, mostly quincuncial, very widely spreading, elliptic to subcircular, 2.64.4 × 1.8-3.6 mm, roundish or obtuse, the margin somewhat wavy, chartaceous or subcoriaceous, pale yellow to white, papillose above, glabrous beneath, the 8-10 nerves like those of the calyx lobes but ± diverging; filaments subulate, 0.7-1.3mm, glabrous, furnished at base with an abaxial subglobular knob 0.1-0.2 mm high and sometimes protruding radially from the disc; anthers heart-shaped, ca. 0.4-0.5 mm long, including a mucronate tip 0.1 mm easily seen in bud only, papillose especially dorsally; disc annular, 5-parted by deep grooves to 1/2 of its thickness, 2-3 mm in diam., fleshy, the parts ±2-lobed, 0.4-0.5 mm high and 0.3-0.5 mm thick, charged with some glands and also sometimes with some tubercles, carpels adnate to the disc and connate in the lower half, globose in the upper half, ca. 0.3 mm high, furnished with numerous ovoid protuberances to 0.1-0.2 mm long and densely beset with spreading, thick hairs to 0.2 mm long; style inserted ca. midway on the carpels, 0.5-1 mm long (nearly completely free), 0.1-0.3 mm thick, glabrous; stigma capitate, slightly 5-lobed, 0.2-0.4 × 0.2-0.4 mm. Fruits depressed, stellately-lobed, (10-)15-20 × 20-30 mm, with glands, sparsely appressed-pubescent with hairs 0.1 mm long; loculi provided 2/3 from the base with an apophysis, muricate or sparsely muricate with tubercles or occasionally with blunt spines to 5 mm long, weakly curved and shrunken when mature, dehiscent septicidally from apex down to 3-4 mm above the base; seed 1 per loculus, obliquely tear-shaped, 8.5-11 × 5-6.5 mm, the ventral side flattened at the base, the apex with a short, curved beak, the dull brown testa linear-colliculate with interspaces of ca. 0.1-0.2 mm, but particularly near the chalaza also roundish-colliculate with interspaces of the same length, those shining and darker than the rest of the testa; chalazal area ovate, 2.5-4 × 1.8-2.2 mm, dark brown-black; hilum 0.5-1.2 mm broad; micropyle with a dark brown-black caruncle; embryo 1 or more, usually 2, 1 much taller than the other(s), cotyledons unequal, thick, with 2 ears and a conical radicle projecting beyond them, plumule very small.