Virola nobilis A.C.Sm.
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Authority
Smith, Albert C. & Wodehouse, R. P. 1938. The American species of Myristicaceae. Brittonia. 2: 393-527. f. 1-9.
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Family
Myristicaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Tree up to 65 m. high, the trunk robust, about 25 m. to the first branch; branchlets slender, sparsely canescent-puberulent, glabrescent; petioles canaliculate, densely puberulent, 1-2 mm. in diameter, 5-10 mm. long; leaf blades thin coriaceous, narrowly oblong, usually with parallel margins, 9-16 cm. long, 2.3-4 cm. broad, attenuate or acute at base, cuspidate or short acuminate at apex, glabrous above, pale puberulent beneath (hairs sessile-stellate, 4-6-branched, about 0.1 mm. in diameter), the costa shallowly grooved above, prominent beneath, the secondary nerves 25-30 per side, nearly straight, obscurely anastomosing near margins, faintly impressed above, sharply raised beneath the veinlets sharply impressed or obscure; staminate inflorescences (ilumature in our specimen) paniculate, up to 4 cm. long, the branchlets and flowers densely brown tomentellous (hairs several-branched from base, about 0.1 mm. long); bracts ovate, puberulent, 3-5 mm. long, soon deciduous; flowers arranged in ultimate elusters of about 10 ( ?); perianth thin carnose, faintly pellucid-punctate, about 2 mm. long,
Latin Diagnosis - Arbor altissima, foliorum forma et infloreseentiis masculis V. surinamensi affinis, fructibus multo majoribus basi conspicue stipitatis, foliorum nervis seeuLndariis paucioribus differt.
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Discussion
Type, Wetmore, Abbe, & Shattuck 155, collected Jan. 7, 1932, on Barro Colorado Island, Canal Zone, Panama, and deposited in the Gray Herbarium.
Native name: Bogabani (ex Aviles),
The collection selected as the type bears young pistillate inflorescences and immature fruits, but in foliage it is the best of the listed specimens. Carpenter 43 bears mature fruits which are described above. Aviles 29 bears young staminate inflorescences, of which several flowers appear to be mature and are described above. Standley 27507 is apparently taken from a juvenile specimen; the foliage suggests its place in the species.
V. nobilis appears to be most closely related to V. surinanensis, from which it is distinguished primarily by its larger fruit which is distinctly stipitate at the base. Secondary characters are mentioned in the key. The ranges of the two species are apparently distinct.
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Distribution
Panama, thus far known only from the Canal Zone.
Panama Central America|