Rhodostemonodaphne grandis (Mez) Rohwer

  • Authority

    Madriñán, Santiago R. 2004. (Lauraceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 92: 1-102. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Lauraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Rhodostemonodaphne grandis (Mez) Rohwer

  • Type

    Type. French Guiana. Fleuve Maroni [St. Laurent?], 1863 (fr), Mélinon 1863 [1865 in B] (lectotype, here designated: B; isolectotypes: NY, P)

  • Synonyms

    Endlicheria grandis Mez, Nectandra grandis (Mez) Kosterm.

  • Description

    Species Description - Trees: branches basitonic, in axils of cataphylls; twigs angular, soon becoming terete, 5-7 mm diam.; epidermis black, barely visible due to indument cover; terminal bud slender, ca. 9 x 6 mm; cataphylls caducous; indument sericeous, caducous after one flush, the hairs dense, to 0.2 mm long, straight, appressed, ascending, golden to silver. Leaves: petioles robust, 1.9-4.4 cm x 2-3.8 mm, adaxially flattened; blades chartaceous, flat, broadly elliptic, 10-33 x 5-12 cm (sapling leaves to 47 x 21 cm); base obtuse to rounded, 70-100°; apex rounded, 80-140°, mucronate to acuminate for up to 1.8 cm; margin plane to recurved; primary vein above flat and as wide as petiole at base, slightly raised and narrow towards apex, below prominent; secondary veins 6-10 pairs, equidistant, eucamptodromous, above flat to slightly raised, below prominent, diverging at 40-60°, abruptly arching near margin, chordal angle 15-30°, the angle uniform along blade length; tertiary veins barely distinguishable from higher-order venation, above slightly raised, below raised, random-reticulate to scalari-form; higher-order veins above and below slightly raised; surface above dark brown in young leaves (the veins silver), brown to olive-green in older leaves, the veins darker, below yellowish brown to silver; indument above absent, the primary vein silver sericeous, below minutely sericeous, the hairs dense to sparse, to 0.28 mm long, straight, appressed, ascending, yellowish, the veins glabrescent, caducous after one flush to persisting for at least two flushes. Staminate inflorescences: along whole length of flush, erect, peduncles 7-17 cm long, the hypopodia 2-7 cm x 1.6-2 (-3) mm, branch orders (4-)5-6, the second-order branches 7-13, dispersed, lowest branch to 2.5(-3.5) cm long, color and indument of all axes as on twigs; bracts and bracteoles caducous (not seen). Staminate flowers: pedicels ca. 4.8 x 1 mm, the diameter even throughout; receptacle globose, ca. 2.8 x 1.6 mm, constricted at the place of tepal inception; tepals chartaceous, ovate, ca. 2.4 x 2 mm (inner whorl slightly smaller), at anthesis spreading to recurved, yellowish brown, adaxially puberulous; stamens of whorls I and II minutely spathulate to lacking a distinct filament, the anthers ovate, ca. 1 x 1 mm (whorl II slightly smaller), with a few hairs at base, the locelli 4, apical, in a shallow arch, introrse, the glands absent; whorl III columnar, ca. 1.2 x 0.6 mm, with a few hairs at base, the locelli 4, the upper pair latrorse, the lower pair extrorse, the glands globular, deeply furrowed to divided, ca. 0.4 mm diam.; whorl IV absent; all stamens yellowish brown; pistillode filiform, ca. 0.4 x 0.1 mm, hairy at base. Pistillate flowers: pistil ca. 1.6 x 0.8 mm; ovary ovoid, ca. 1 mm long, glabrous. Fruits: pedicels to 14(-16) x 8 mm, abruptly enlarging to form the cupule; cupule hemispherical, to 17 x 25 mm, walls thick tuberculate, the margin straight, tepals caducous; berry ovoid, to 35 x 22 mm.

  • Discussion

    Field notes. Trees to 30 m tall and 40 cm diam., already flowering when 15 m tall; buttresses low; outer bark rough, warty, with horizontal scars; lenticels 4-5 mm across, dark brown or gray and spotted; inner bark ca. 15 mm thick, fibrous, yellow-brown, becoming reddish brown; wood white, with unpleasant smell or non-aromatic; leaves above dark green, the primary vein yellow-green, below light green to whitish, the veins yellow-green. Inflorescence axes whitish green; pedicels reddish; tepals yellow; stamens/staminodes red; ovary stigma white when receptive. Cupule tinged with red.

    Rhodostemonodaphne grandis as circumscribed here in the strict sense constitutes only a minor part of R. grandis s.l., a widespread, vegetatively very variable but intergrading complex that includes at least six species in the genera Endlicheria and Rhodostemonodaphne (see “The Rhodostemonodaphne grandis complex” section above). This complex is characterized by silver sericeous indument on most organs, with usually large leaves, although they vary greatly in size and shape. Their inflorescences are at first sight very similar, but careful dissection reveals considerable floral differences between the different taxa.

    Vegetatively Rhodostemonodaphne grandis s.str. can be distinguished from the other species of the complex by its leaves that are on average wider, have more obtuse bases, and high number of secondary veins. Other characters used to distinguish the species in the R. grandis complex are listed in Table V.

    Rhodostemonodaphne grandis is found growing in sympatry with one other species of the complex, R. saülensis. Nevertheless, the differences between R. grandis and R. saülensis are sharp. Rhodostemonodaphne saiilensis has leaves with an acute, often revolute leaf base, and the lowest number of secondary veins in the complex (3-6). Furthermore, the tepals of R. grandis are yellow, while those of R. saülensis are red.

    Further collections may show range overlap with the widespread R. praeclara. This variable species has on average smaller leaves than those of R. grandis and fewer secondary veins (only 4-6). Furthermore, the absence of paired glands on the stamens of whorl III in R. praeclara is a very distinctive difference between them.

    A large number of collections of this species have been made from saplings. The extreme variability of sapling leaves often makes identification impossible. Thus the determination of saplings as Rhodostemonodaphne grandis is only tentative and based on other information, such as being collected in the same localities where adult R. grandis are found or having the same local names. Most of the specimens from the Amazonian lowlands previously determined as R. grandis in fact belong to Endlicheria metallica and Rhodostemonodaphne praeclara. The great majority of these are in fruit, which is indistinguishable in the three species.

    Mez (1889) originally described this species as Endlicheria? grandis [sic], based on a single fruiting collection. He placed it at the end of his subgenus Euendlicheria, where he included a number of sericeous species, including Endlicheria sericea Mez, and a now synonym of E. sericea, E. guadaloupensis Mez. Kostermans (1936: 17) after having seen flowers with the typical Nectandra-like four-locellate anthers transferred Endlicheria grandis to Nectandra as N. grandis. He also synonymized N. praeclara Sandwith and N. dioica Mez with N. grandis. He did not, however, note the absence of glands from N. praeclara. In the discussion of N. dioica he dismissed the relevance of the indument type, but as Rohwer (1986) correctly stated, in Rhodostemonodaphne dioica alone the indument consists of two types of hairs, appressed and erect.

  • Common Names

    papaja-pisi, groot-bladige-zwarte[harde]-pisi, watjarang, baaka-apisi, guéli[geli]-apisi, cèdre jaune, cèdre noir

  • Distribution

    Northeastern South America in Suriname, French Guiana, and the Brazilian state of Amapá, from sea level to ca. 600 m in lowland rain forest. Flowers (June-)September-November (-January), during the dry season. Fruits (September-)December-February(-March), at the beginning of the rainy season.

    Suriname South America| Brokopondo Suriname South America| Marowijne Suriname South America| Nickerie Suriname South America| Saramacca Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| Brazil South America| Amapá Brazil South America|