Endlicheria formosa A.C.Sm.

  • Authority

    Chanderbali, Andre S. 2004. (Lauraceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 91: 1-141. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Lauraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Endlicheria formosa A.C.Sm.

  • Type

    Type. Brazil. Amazonas: Basin of Rio Juruá, near mouth of Rio Embira (tributary of Rio Tarauaca), 4 Jul 1933 (fl [male]), Krukoff 5156 (holotype: NY; isotypes: A, F, G, K, S, U).

  • Description

    Species Description - Trees to 30 m. Branchlets stout, midway along flush 4-8 mm diam., sharply angular, sparsely rusty strigillose, the surface clearly exposed, dark brown, the hairs very short, to 0.1 mm, straight, appressed; terminal buds slender, 6 × 2 mm, greyish sericeous. Leaves alternate, widely and evenly spaced along current flush; petioles slender, to 4 × 0.3 cm, canaliculate, the indument as on branchlets; laminae chartaceous to coriaceous, plane, obovate, 12-30 × 3-15 cm, the base acute to cuneate, attenuate, the apex obtuse, acuminate for up to 2 cm, the margins minutely recurved throughout; upper surface dark greyish green to olive-brown, waxy, the midrib prominulous throughout or sunken before midcourse, the higher-order venation raised; lower surface sparsely pubescent, the hairs as on branchlets, uniformly distributed, all vein orders raised, their prominence decreasing with rank; secondary veins 8-10 per side, ± evenly spaced, slightly more distant around midlamina, ascending at 50-60° (more obtusely around midlamina), arcuate, distal pairs loop-connected; tertiaries oblique to midrib, between secondaries straight to forked. Staminate inflorescences evenly spaced along current flush in the axils of foliage leaves, to 10 cm long with 16 lateral branches, branch orders 3-4, the highest order dichasial, lax, the flowers distant, the axes rusty to grey-strigillose, distalmost branches and pedicels more densely so; bracts and bracteoles caducous by anthesis, ovate, grey-sericeous; pedicels terete, to 1 mm long, those supporting secondary flowers slightly shorter. Flowers depressed-globose, 2 mm diam., sparsely to densely rusty strigillose outside; receptacle patelliform, 0.3 × 2 mm, densely rusty papillose inside. Tepals chartaceous, broadly triangular, 0.3 × 0.6 mm (the inner whorl slightly narrower), erect to inflexed at anthesis, the androecium included except for a narrow apical pore through which anther valves protrude, the inner surface densely rusty papillose. Stamens of whorls I and II sessile, unequal, whorl I 0.6 mm long, whorl II half as tall, the anthers ovate, 0.4 × 0.2 in whorl I, 0.3 × 0.3 in whorl II, sparsely papillose, the apex apiculate, the connectives prolonged between the 2 locelli, these obliquely hemispherical, introrse-latrorse, the filaments fleshy, broader than anthers, densely rusty papillose; whorl III stamens sessile, 0.8 mm tall, the anthers narrowly ovate, 0.4 × 0.2 mm, erect, locelli 2, extrorse-latrorse, the filaments broader than anthers, fleshy, densely rusty papillose, the basal glands globose, sessile; whorl IV wanting; pistillode wanting. Pistillate inflorescence with indument, color, and branching as in staminate plants, the flowers similar in size and shape; stamens sterile, smaller; ovary glabrous, ovoid; style slender, distinct from ovary; stigma tri-lobed, 0.5 mm diam., papillose. Fruits borne on terete pedicels of up to 1 × 0.3 cm; cupules shallowly hemispherical to patelliform, to 2 × 0.3 cm, glabrous inside and outside, the margins entire; drupes ellipsoid to obovoid, to 4 × 2 cm.

  • Discussion

    Endlicheria formosa differs from most congeners by its depressed-globose flowers with incurved to erect tepals, but belongs in the E. browniana species group on the basis of dense papillosity inside flowers and sessile stamens with ovate anthers. Also, in the E. browniana species group, very similar flowers are found in E. paradoxa. Indeed, without the scalariform to percurrent tertiaries of E. formosa to contrast the reticulate tertiary venation of E. paradoxa, it would be questionable whether larger flower size in the latter is sufficient to separate the two species. Outside of the E. browniana species group, only E. robusta of the E. sericea species group has similar depressed-globose flowers.

    Rowers from the Andean uplands and Central America tend to be larger, more strongly depressed, and more densely pubescent than those from lowland Amazonia. Leaf size and texture is also variable, but as with flowers, variation appears to be continuous.

  • Common Names

    aguacatón, yiyiwa-ageyi, temachi, cunshi moena, casha moena, moena blanca, moena de altura, louro abacate

  • Distribution

    Medium sized to tall trees from Amazonian lowlands as well as upland forests from Peru to Costa Rica, at ca. 100-1700 m. Flowering and fruiting specimens were collected in almost every month of the year.

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