Pilocarpus trachylophus Holmes

  • Authority

    Kaastra, Roelof C. 1982. A monograph of the Pilocarpinae (Rutaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 33: 1-198. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Rutaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Pilocarpus trachylophus Holmes

  • Type

    Type. Comm. W. J. Bragg & Co. of Liverpool s.n., shipped from Brazil, Ceara, received Feb 1894, st with separate infructescences (holotype, PHA).

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub or tree 0.8-8 m tall; indument of cream-tawny hairs to 0.3(-0.5) mm; branchlets ca. 3-7 mm in diam., grayish-brown, minutely puberulous when young; perules of terminal buds densely pubescent. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, 1-3-jugate with sessile or shortly stalked leaflets, subcircular, ca. 3-20 × 6-18 cm; petiole semiterete, canaliculate, slightly or scarcely winged, 1-5 cm long and 0.1 cm thick, minutely pubescent, the wings to 0.3 mm broad and not eared; rachis 1.8-8 cm long, the interspaces 1-3 cm; petiolules 0-3 mm; leaflet blades narrowly oblong or narrowly elliptic, or obovate, rarely some ovate, 3-11.5 × 1.5-3.7 cm, rounded, obtuse, or narrowly cuneate at base, lateral leaflets strongly unequal at base, rounded, obtuse, or occasionally truncate at apex, but the very tip always emarginate, margin recurved, leaflet blades subcoriaceous, brown-green above, distinctly paler and often yellow-green beneath, sparsely or densely pubescent on both sides with hairs 0.1-0.3 mm above and 0.2-0.5 mm beneath, venation brochidodromous to camptodromous, prominulous, midvein plane above and very prominent beneath. Racemes 1-2 per branch, apical, erect, 25-10 cm or longer and 0.8-0.9 cm wide with numerous flowers; rachis 2 mm thick, densely pubescent; bracts and bractlets (depressedly) ovate, to ca. 1 × 0.81 mm, glabrous above, minutely pubescent beneath; pedicels 1-1.5 mm long, in fruit to 4 mm, densely minutely pubescent; bractlets 2, close to the calyx. Flowers ca. 6.2-7 mm in diam.; calyx 5-lobed; lobes separate, (depressedly) ovate, ca. 1-2.5 × 1.5-2 mm, acute, coriaceous, minutely pubescent; petals valvate, ca. 2.73 × 1.8-2.5 mm, the tip inflexed through to 0.8 mm, thickly coriaceous, not transparent, red, purplish when boiled, the keel distinctly winged, the wings extending over the ovate, acuminate, distinct impressions, glabrous, or strigillose beneath, venation parallel to acrodromous; filaments subulate, flattened towards base, 2.2-2.5 × 0.4 mm, red, glabrous; anthers heart-shaped, 0.7-1.1 × 0.7-1 mm, with dorsal gland 0.2 mm long; disc rosette-like, 5-lobed, shallowly grooved at apex, ca. 0.5 mm high and 2.3 mm in diam., purplish, fleshy, wrinkled, glabrous; carpels almost completely immersed into the disc and adnate to it, ca. 0.7 mm high, with small tubercles, densely pilose at tip or glabrous; ovules 2, collateral; style obsolete, inserted midway among the carpels, 0.2 × 0.2 mm, indument like that of the ovary; stigma capitate-clavate, 0.5 × 0.5 mm, purplish. Mericarps obovoid to subellipsoid, 8-10 × 7-9 mm, dorso-apically rounded, obtuse at apex, not truncate, irregularly wrinkled and muricate with tubercles to 1 mm high, the parallel-arched ribs hardly visible externally and only slightly so internally, with glands, hoary when young, becoming glabrous except for the sides; seed 1 per mericarp, at least 9 × 4.5 mm; cotyledons unequal, eared, obscurely punctate.

  • Discussion

    According to Duval (1903: 98) also known as arruda-do-mato. Dried and fresh as a sudatory tea (Zehntner 75). For its use as a drug (Ceará jaborandi), see PHYTOCHEMISTRY.

    This species is close to Pilocarpus microphyllus. Yet there are several differences: the petioles have narrower wings, the leaflets are narrower and pale below, the midvein is plane and not prominent above. The racemes are pubescent, not glabrous; the flowers are larger and usually hairy instead of always glabrous.

    Sterile specimens in particular are rather similar to P. jaborandi. Differences are the leaves, which are darker green above; the indument (best to be seen at terminal buds) is more hyaline-whitish rather than tawny, and more shining, of strongly curved hairs. The leaves are shorter, only 1-3-jugate, with usually sessile leaflets; sessile leaflets were not in P. jaborandi. The racemes, flowers (especially the petals), and fruits, finally, are quite different.

    Except for a record by Engler, this species has only been referred to in pharmaceutical literature. J. F. de Toledo, who came first across a noncommercial collection, was unaware thereby of the existence of P. trachylophus. He gave the collection a manuscript name but died (in 1952) before he could have published it. The recent collections of Anderson et al., the specimen seen by Toledo, and the material of commercial origin, are identical.

    According to Geiger (1897), the dried plant has a disgusting scent, but recent collections do not have it, nor do their labels mention it.

  • Common Names

    Catigua, jaborandi

  • Distribution

    Brazil, Ceará, Bahia, and Minas Gerais. Cerrado and margin of forests, moist stony places, and sandy soils, locally common; alt. 510-620 m, as far as known; flowering Mar-Apr.

    Brazil South America| Ceará Brazil South America| Bahia Brazil South America| Minas Gerais Brazil South America|