Mascagnia benthamiana (Griseb.) W.R.Anderson
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Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1978. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part XI. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 32: 1-391.
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Family
Malpighiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Woody vines, often on stream banks or in seasonally inundated places; stems sericeous to soon glabrate. Lamina of the larger leaves 9-18(-21) cm long, 4.5-7.5(-9.5) cm wide, narrowly to broadly ovate, rounded (rarely slightly cordate) at the base, revolute at the margin, acuminate at the apex, sericeous to soon glabrate above, persistently golden- or silvery-sericeous below, the hairs so dense and appressed as to completely conceal the lamina and usually giving the leaf a metallic sheen, bearing many to few (occasionally no) small marginal glands, otherwise eglandular, the reticulum ± prominent on both sides; petiole (2-)4-11 mm long, sericeous to glabrate, bearing 2 large glands at or slightly above the base; stipules ca 0.3 mm long, borne on the petiole beside or slightly above the glands. Inflorescence a sericeous, compound, axillary or terminal panicle containing bracts 3 mm long bearing 2 large glands, the flowers ultimately borne in pseudoracemes (1-)2-6 cm long of 4-16 flowers; floriferous bracts 1-2 mm long, ovate, bearing 2 large abaxial glands or eglandular; peduncle none or up to 4 mm long; bracteoles 0.7-1.5(-2) mm long, triangular, borne at the apex ofthe peduncle. Pedicel 3-6 mm long, sericeous. Sepals completely concealing the petals until anthesis, 3-4 mm long, ca 1.5 mm wide, revolute after anthesis, membranous at the margins, obtuse or rounded at the apex, abaxially thinly sericeous, adaxially glabrous, the lateral 4 biglandular with the glands 2-2.5 mm long and often revolute at the apex, the anterior sepal eglandular. Petals yellow, glabrous, the limb 3.5-5 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, erose, the claw 1-2 mm long, thicker in the posterior petal. Filaments 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous, straight, up to 1/3 connate; anthers 1-1.5 mm long, bearing a few straight hairs abaxially at the base and sericeous between the locules. Ovary 1-1.5 mm high, sericeous; styles 1.2-2.3 mm long, subequal, glabrous except hirsute at the base, stout, recurved-divergent, dorsally rounded or truncate at the apex, the stigmas internal but sometimes appearing nearly terminal. Samara usually with 2 discrete trapezoidal lateral wings 11-20 mm wide, sinuate at the margin or lobed or incised to the nut, occasionally only 5-10 mm wide and irregularly much dissected; central dorsal wing or crest 2-7 mm wide, subentire or sinuate, often extended forward at the apex between the lateral wings; intermediate winglets usually none, rarely several small crests or processes; ventral areole ovate, 2-3 mm in diameter.
Phenology - Collected in flower and fruit in various months in different areas.
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Discussion
6. Mascagnia benthamiana (Grisebach) Anderson, comb nov Tetrapterys benthamiana Grisebach in Martius, Fl, Bras. 12(1): 88. 1858. Mascagnia sericans Niedenzu, Arb, Bot, Inst, Lye, Braunsberg 3: 21. 1908. Malpighiodes benthamiana (Grisebach) Niedenzu, Verz. Vorles. Lye. W.-S. 1909/10: 31, not. 13. 1909. Clonodia sessilis Niedenzu, Arb. Bot, Inst, Ak, Braunsberg 8: 63. 1926. Type. Spruce, in vicinibus Santarem, Para, Brazil, Nov.-Mart. 1849-50 (holotype GOET? isotypes E! G, GH! M, NY!). This is a widespread and exceedingly variable species. The description given above does not attempt to include all the variation in the species; it is taken from the representatives seen from Amazonian Peru and Colombia and northern Brazil. The species usually has a mascagnioid samara, but occasionally the lateral wings are much dissected, and it was one of these collections that Grisebach and Niedenzu treated as a Tetrapterys. Other characters show the Spruce type to be conspecific with Amazonian populations of Mascagnia sericans Niedenzu. The same Spruce collection is also the type of Clonodia sessilis Niedenzu.