Duguetia riberensis Aristeg. ex Maas & Boon

  • Authority

    Maas, Paulus J. M., et al. 2003. (Annonaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 88: 1-274 pp. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Annonaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Duguetia riberensis Aristeg. ex Maas & Boon

  • Type

    Type: Venezuela. Guárico: margins of Río Orituco, 15 km S of Calabozo on road to Cazola, Jul 1964 (fr), Aristeguieta 5380 (holotype, VEN; isotypes, HBG, NY, U).

  • Description

    Species Description - Tree or rarely a shrub, 3-30 m tall, 30-50 cm in diam. Young twigs and petioles totally covered with stellate hairs 0.1-0.5 mm in diam. Petioles 1-4 mm long, 1-2 mm in diam. Lamina elliptic to ovate (to narrowly so), often falcate, 6-20 cm long, 2.5-6.5(-8) cm wide, leaf index 2.4-4.6, chartaceous, pale green to brown on both sides, sparsely covered with stellate hairs 0.10.5 mm in diam. to glabrous above, sparsely to rather densely covered with stellate hairs 0.1-0.5 mm in diam. below, base acute to rounded (to cordate), apex acute to acuminate (acumen to 10 mm long), primary vein impressed above, secondary veins straight to curved, 11-19 on either side of primary vein, slightly raised above, angles with primary vein 55-70°, loop-forming at obtuse to right angles, loops indistinct, smallest distance of loops with margin 1-3 mm, tertiary veins flat to slightly raised above. Inflorescences among leaves, leaf-opposed, sometimes supra-axillary, sometimes terminal on a very short, axillary shoot, l-2(-3)-flowered. Indument: pedicels and both sides of bracts, sepals, and petals densely to totally covered with stellate hairs 0.1-0.5 mm in diam., outer side of sepals sometimes also with stellate scales. Peduncle 0.5-2.5 mm long, 1-3 mm in diam. Pedicels 6-25 mm long, 1-2 mm in diam., fruiting pedicels to 4 mm in diam. Upper bract at 1/2 to 2/3 of base of pedicel, elliptic to narrowly ovate, 3-6 mm long, caducous. Flower buds very broadly ovoid. Flowers green, cream to yellow in vivo, inner base of petals red to pink. Sepals free, broadly ovate, 7-13 mm long, 6-12 mm wide, acute, distinctly ribbed, soon reflexed. Petals subequal, broadly ovate, (18-)25-35 mm long, (11-)20-25 mm wide, acute to obtuse, outer petals distinctly veined, inner base of inner petals callóse, strongly grooved. Stamens 1.5-2.5 mm long, color unknown, apex of connective depressed to very depressed ovoid-triangular, 0.2-0.5 x 0.5-1 mm, papillate, in some specimens with additional, simple and furcate hairs. Carpels 4-5 mm long, ovary and stigma totally covered with stellate hairs 0.1-0.3 mm in diam. Fruit green to red in vivo, globose, 6-7 cm in diam., basal collar composed of 18-25 connate, sterile carpels, 12-17 mm in diam., not protruding below the fruit, fertile carpels 75-300, obovoid to obtrulloid, 12-23 mm long, 5-12 mm in diam., free, strongly laterally flattened, areoles depressed to very depressed ovoid, 2-4 mm high, obtuse, apiculate (apicule 1-3 mm long), prominently 4-6-ribbed, verrucose, densely covered with stellate hairs 0.1-0.2 mm in diam. Seeds obovoid to ellipsoid, 9-13 mm long, 4-7 mm in diam., obtuse to rounded, pale to dark brown, slightly shiny.

  • Discussion

    Fruits are edible. Wood is used for house construction (Ll. Williams 13298). Bark extracts (“corteza chupada”) are used as remedies against ants (“hormigas 24”) bites (Rosales et al. 1555).

    Duguetia riberensis is distinctive by slightly falcate leaves, covered with stellate hairs below, and a fruit with up to 300, strongly flattened carpels. It is restricted to gallery forests. It comes close to D. vallicola, as shown in a study carried out in Utrecht under the supervision of P. J. M. Maas (E. J. M. C. Boon, unpublished report, 1994), and confirmed by our later phenetic analysis (Fig. 37, 8th cluster). Both species share distinctly ribbed sepals. The species are difficult to separate in flowering condition, but fruiting specimens are easily distinguished (see comments on the fruit under D. vallicola). In van Zuilen et al. (1995) D. riberensis and D. vallicola come into one terminal clade with a bootstrap frequency of 47%.

    One of the collections (Aristeguieta & Zabala 7075) has a flower with relatively large sepals, which otherwise is rather unusual in D. riberensis. The leaves in this specimen are lighter in color than in most other specimens. However, none of the other characteristics are noticeably different from those of typical D. riberensis.

  • Common Names

    Anoncillo, Anoncillo de rebalses, yarayara, Yararara amarilla, Yekuana

  • Distribution

    The Venezuelan states of Apure, Bolívar, and Guárico. Along riversides, in gallery forest. At elevations from sea level to 100 m. Flowering in April and May, fruiting from May to August. According to Rosales et al 1698 fruits are eaten by fish.

    Venezuela South America| Apure Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America| Guárico Venezuela South America|