Virola officinalis 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

    Virola officinalis Warb.

  • Description

    Species Description - Tree: branchlets slender, when young densely tomentose (hairs ferruginous, few-branched, up to 0.5 mm. long), soon glabrous; petioles canaliculate, slender, 1.5-2 mm. in diameter, 5-11 mm. long, tomentose as the branchlets; leaf blades chartaceous or thin coriaceous, oblong or narrowly obovate-elliptic, 8-16 cm. long, 2.5-5 cm. broad, truncate or shallowly cordate at base, subacute or cuspidate at apex, ferruginous tomentellous beneath (hairs usually sessile but sometimes short-stalked, 3-5-branched, 0.2-0.4 mm. ill diameter), the costa shallowly grooved above, prominent beneath, the secondary nerves 18-30 per side, straight, slightly impressed above, raised beneath, the veinlets obscure; staminate inflorescences narrow, once-branched, 3-7 cm. long, the pedicel 1-2 cm. long, conspicuously flattened, with the branchlets and flowers dark brown tomentellous (hairs irregularly 3-8-branched, 0.2-0.3 mm. in diameter), the branchlets few, short, the flower clusters 3-9, those toward the apex sessile; bracts oblong, acute, 5-8 mm. long, puberulent, soon deciduous; flowers arranged in clusters of 8-20, the pedicels slender, up to 2 mm. long; perianth thin carnose, 2-2.3 mm. long, 3- lobed nearly to base, the lobes obtuse; androecium 1.4-1.6 mm. long, the filament column slender, 0.7-1 mm. long, the anthers 3, 0.5-0.7 mm. long, obtuse at apex, tapering at base; pistillate and fruiting inflorescences not seen.

  • Discussion

    Myristica officinalis Mart.; Mart. & Spix, Reise in Bras. 2: 543. 1828; not L. f. (1781).

    Type locality: Bahia, Brazil.

    The name V. officinalis should be accredited to Warburg rather than to (Martius) Warburg, since Myristica officinalis Mart. was a later homonym of M. officinalis L. f. This situation is discussed in Article 69 of the most recent International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature, 1935. The species has been considerably misunderstood because of Martius' confusion of it with V. oleifera (V. Bicuhyba). Warburg 16: 230) has discussed it at length.

  • Distribution

    Distribution: Bahia, Brazil. Warburg (16: 230) also cites a specimen

    Brazil South America|