Siparuna tomentosa (Ruiz & Pav.) A.DC.

  • Authority

    Renner, Susanne S. & Hausner, Gerlinde. 2005. Siparunaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 95: 1--247 pp. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Monimiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Siparuna tomentosa (Ruiz & Pav.) A.DC.

  • Type

    Type: Peru. Huánuco: Chinchao, Muña et Pillao versus Chacahuassi, about 2000 m, Aug-Sep (male and female sprigs), Ruiz & Pavón s.n. (holotype, MA 24/37 photo seen; isotypes, BC, B photo neg. s.n., BM, F 24/37 ex MA, FI-WEBB 2 sheets, photos seen, G-DEL, F photo neg. 8372, MA 2 sheets: MA 24/37 and unnumbered, photos seen, OXF). Only the G-DEL isotype bears a collection number (902). Two of the MA sheets and the F isotype carry Macbride s  24/37 numbers, but the third MA sheet has only an original Ruiz & Pavón label. The OXF duplicate is a monoecious sprig and MA has a duplicate that consists of one male and one female sprig mounted together. All other duplicates have just one sex per herbarium sheet.

  • Synonyms

    Siparuna pellita (Tul.) A.DC., Siparuna polyantha (Tul.) A.DC., Siparuna eriocalyx (Tul.) A.DC., Siparuna asperula (Tul.) A.DC., Siparuna fulva A.DC., Siparuna chrysantha Perkins, Siparuna cinerea Perkins, Siparuna weberbaueri Perkins, Siparuna saurauiifolia Perkins, Siparuna galbina J.F.Macbr.

  • Description

    Species Description - Dioecious or rarely monoecious shrub or treelet, 1-12 m tall; young branchlets terete and densely covered with reddish brown or golden yellow tufted hairs, sometimes sarmentose and straggling. Leaves in whorls of 3 or 4 or opposite; petioles 1-3.5 cm long; lamina often drying reddish brown, more rarely greenish or golden-brown, relatively thick-chartaceous, oblong-ovate, lanceolate, or elliptic, 8-23(-50) X 4-10(-20) cm, the base rounded or cordate, sometimes acute or obtuse, rarely eared, the apex acute or obtuse, the tip 0.5-1 cm long, both surfaces typically densely velvety pubescent, with 8-12(-15) pairs of secondary veins, the veins almost flat above and below, the margin denticulate or serrulate (Fig. 2E), drying flat. Cymes 2.5-8(-12) cm long, pendent, densely covered with tufted hairs, with a moderate number of flowers (ca. 5-20). Fresh flowers yellowish orange or creamy yellow; male floral cup subglobose, 2-3.5 mm in diam., 1.5-2.3 mm high, pubescent like the cymes, the 4-8 tepals broadly triangular, up to 1.4 mm long, sometimes fused to a narrow or shallowly lobed rim, rarely obsolete (Fig. 11C), the floral roof broadly raised and more or less densely pubescent with short spreading hairs, glabrescent, or glabrous; stamens 5-15, very rarely to 35, flat and often distinctly exserted from the floral pore and bent backwards (Fig. 11 C); female floral cup subglobose, 2.5-3.6 mm in diam., 2.2-3.5 mm high, the tepals broadly triangular or rounded, up to 1.5 mm long, the floral roof more or less raised and with a central tube sheathing the styles; styles 3-13(-26). Fruiting receptacle globose, about 2 X 1.5 cm, crowned by the persistent tepals, when fresh and mature red with greenish white spots and a strong pungent smell, when dried sometimes with minute pustules (to 1 mm long), the drupelets fresh tan and bearing a red stylar aril.

  • Discussion

    Indigenous people in Peru and Bolivia boil the leaves of Siparuna tomentosa in water to prepare a steam bath against headaches and fever.

    As noted by Perkins and Sleumer (and confirmed by us), the Barcelona, Florence, Geneva, and Oxford duplicates of Ruiz & Pavón labeled as Citriosma aspera are not identical with the C. aspera type material in Madrid. Instead, they represent C. tomentosa Ruiz & Pavón (1798). Because of the resulting discrepancies between the protologues and supposed authentic material of these species, de Candolle (1868) treated C. tomentosa twice, once (p. 645) as a questionable synonym under Siparuna aspera, a second time (p. 657) under “species dubiae” with a note saying it might be the same as S. sessiliflora (which S. tomentosa indeed resembles in indumentum). Probably because of this double treatment, Perkins did not regard de Candolle’s transfer of C. tomentosa into Siparuna as effective. Therefore she gives the name of this species as S. tomentosa (Ruiz & Pavón) Perkins. Further problems with the name C. aspera are discussed under that species.

    In general, Siparuna tomentosa is readily recognized by the combination of terete, densely tomentose branchlets, temate whorls, and pendent inflorescences. The floral roof can be tomentose or glabrous, but this does not seem to correlate with other characters or geography. More problematic are collections that have minute (generally less than 0.5 mm long) pustules on the receptacles. We decided not to recognize these collections as a separate species for two reasons. First, pustulate collections occur throughout the range of S. tomentosa, rather than coming from a geographically coherent area, and the presence of pustules does not correlate with any other character. Second, similar pustules on the receptacles sometimes occur in S. lozaniana, S. macrotepala, S. schimpffii, and a few other species, suggesting that such outgrowths are a phenotypically variable feature.

    Of the other entities here synonymized, Siparuna eriocalyx was collected at the type locality of S. tomentosa, and its type clearly represents that species. Siparuna pellita, S. polyantha, and S. cinerea from Bolivia are indistinguishable from Peruvian material of S. tomentosa. A fourth named entity of S. tomentosa described from Bolivia is S. chrysantha. The type material of this has smaller and less pubescent leaves than most Bolivian collections of S. tomentosa, and we initially tried to maintain S. chrysantha. However, collections intermediate between larger-leaved, more typical S. tomentosa and the type of S. chrysantha soon blurred the distinction between the two.

    Yet other Bolivian collections, mostly from Prov. Murillo in the Department of La Paz (S. Beck 3588 and 6117, Solomon 9609, 10736, 12082, 12564, 12947,12956, and 17826), have branchlets and leaves so sparsely pubescent that they resemble Siparuna the cap hora. In spite of the geographic proximity, they do not quite match the type of the just discussed S. chrysantha (which would have been an available name) because their receptacles are smaller and more shortly pubescent. Additional male and female flowering material is needed to decide whether these collections merit taxonomic recognition. However, any description of further ecotypes of S. tomentosa should probably await field observations on intra- and inter-populational variation.

    The type of Siparuna asperula (from Peru) retains almost no flowers, but its leaf shape and pubescence are those of S. tomentosa. There is some possibility that it came from a monoecious plant (like the types of S. tomentosa and S. fulva) because different duplicates of the original material apparently had male and female flowers. Of course, the sprigs could also have come from two individuals. (Compare the notes on typification for S. asperula, S. fulva, and S. tomentosa.) Modem monoecious collections of S. tomentosa are I. Sánchez Vega 4524 and Woytkowski 6578, both from Peru.

  • Common Names

    añashquero, añashquero chico, limoncillo, cebuqui

  • Distribution

    Siparuna tomentosa occurs on the eastern slopes of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia at elevations between 300 and 3000 m.

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