Compsoneura ulei Warb.

  • Authority

    Smith, Albert C. & Wodehouse, R. P. 1938. The American species of Myristicaceae. Brittonia. 2: 393-527. f. 1-9.

  • Family

    Myristicaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Compsoneura ulei Warb.

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub or small tree, glabrous throughout; branchlets slender, striate; petioles rugose, shallowly canaliculate, narrowly winged distally, slender, less than 2 mm. in diameter, 7-15 mm. long; leaf blades chartaceous or papyraceous, oblong-elliptic or narrowly elliptic, 10-23 cm. long, 3-8 cm. broad, attenuate at base and narrowly decurrent on the petiole, obtusely cuspidate or short acuminate at apex (acumen up to 15 mm. long), often shining above, the secondary nerves 4-8 per side ascending, raised on both surfaces, the tertiary nerves and reticulate veinlets prominulous on both surfaces; staminate inflorescences 1.5-3.5 mm. long, simple (rarely once-branched) or arising from a small swollen common peduncle, racemose or fasciculate-racemose, the peduncles short; flowers solitary or paired, subtended by minute ovate coriaceous deciduous bracts, the pedicels slender, up to 5 mm. long; perianth thin carnose, faintly and minutely puberulent or papillose within, 2.5-3 mm. long, 3-lobed nearly to base, the lobes deltoid-oblong, obtuse; androecium about 1 mm. long, densely glandular-pucletate (except anthers), the filamenit column stout, carnose, leading into a truncate obeonical connective mass about 1.5 mm. in diameter at apex, the summit deeply concave, the individual connectives firmly connate but marked by small sinuses, the anthers 6-9, 2-celled, 0.3-0.4 mm. long, the anther cells contiguous but separately adnate to the connectives; pistillate inflorescences resembling the staminate but with slightly larger and more carnose flowers, the ovary subglobose, glabrous, the stigma small, subpeltate; fruiting inflorescences less than 5 cm. long, the mature fruits usually 1 or 2 per inflorescence, pedicellate (pedicels 4-7 mm. long, swollen distally), 16-22 mm. long, 9-13 mm. broad, minutely stipitate at base (stipe about 1 mm. long), obtuse or minutely apiculate at apex, the pericarp brittle, less than 0.2 mm. thick, the aril white (ex Ducke), waxy.

  • Discussion

    Type locality: Near Manaos, Amazonas, Brazil

    A very distinct species on the basis of its often racemose inflorescence and unusual androecium. It bears somewhat the same relationship to the Section Coniostele that C. racemosa bears to Eucompsoneura

  • Distribution

    Amazonian Brazil, at low elevations. BRAZIL: Amazonas: Lake Massauary, Ducke 19572 (B, 5, Utr); near Manaos, Ule 5336 (B, type, K), 5336b (B); Rio Madeira, Kuhlmann 23684 (B, K, US); basin of Rio Jurua, Krukoff 5167 (NY). Matto Grosso: Rio Machado region, Krukoff 1556 (B, K, M, Mich, NY, P, 5, Utr). Para: Serra de Santarem, Ducke 19573 (B, 5, Utr); Rio Trombetas, Ducke 4589 (B, Utr), 19574 (B, Utr) ; Rio Tapajoz, Ducke 3859 (16850) (B, K, 5, US, Utr), 18627 (K, S, US), 18628 (B, Utr).

    Brazil South America|