Vitex pseudolea Rusby
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Authority
Rusby, Henry H. 1927. Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Plants Collected on the Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Valley 1921-1922. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 7: 205-387.
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Family
Verbenaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Petioles and midribs minutely downy. Petiole very slender, somewhat shorter than the middle leaflet. Leaflets 5, the slender petiolules 6 to 12 mm. long, the blades 5 to 10 cm. long by 1.5 to 4 cm. broad, the outer successively smaller, oblanceolate, the base regularly acuminate, the summit abruptly short-pointed, acute or obtuse; membranaceous, thin, entire, the midrib and secondaries, about 15 on each side, slender and sharp beneath, the venation strongly reticulate. Cymes lateral, numerous, short-peduncled, few-flowered, the slender pedicels very unequal. Flowers bright-blue, not collected. Calyx of the young fruit crateriform to subhemispherical, lightly 5-nerved and reticulate-veiny, loosely subtending the fruit, the margin shallowly 5-crenate, each lobe bearing a minute mucro. Fruit ovoid or slightly obovoid when young, ellipsoidal when mature, purpleblack, oily and sweetish, and of peculiar flavor, and as large as a small olive.
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Discussion
This becomes a good-sized, densely leafy tree, called Aceituno del monte (wild olive) and Anacahuita. The fruit is greedily eaten by children, and the bark is used in the treatment of rheumatism. Collected in fruit at Rurrenabaque, Bolivia, November 1921. A tree of the same name and supposedly the same was seen in flower at Santa Ana on the Bopi River, three months earlier. It was densely covered with flowers, before the appearance of the leaves (no 767). Also collected by Williams at Ixiamas, Bolivia. Species near V. gigantea H. B. K., which is a ferruginous-tomentellate species.