Brunellia

• Authority

  Cuatrecasas, José. 1970. Brunelliaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 2: 1-189. (Published by NYBG Press)

• Family

  Brunelliaceae

• Scientific Name

  Brunellia

• Type

  Type species. Brunellia inermis Ruiz & Pavon.

• Synonyms

  Brunelia Ruiz & Pav., Brunellia inermis Ruiz & Pav.

• Description

  Description - Flowers unisexual and dioecious, or bisexual, pentamerous, tetramerous, or hexamerous (-octomerous). Sepals valvate, slightly united at base, persistent after fruiting. Petals absent. Stamens twice as many as the sepals, rarely more, the outer verticil alternate with, the inner opposite to, the sepals. Filaments free, hirtellous or villous, the apex thin, curling. In female flowers the staminodia very short. Anthers introrse, oscillating or pendulous, dehiscing by clefts. Pollen grains tricolporate. Carpels free but incipiently subinferior, as many as the sepals and alternating with them, or fewer. Ovary biovulate, densely hairy. Style subulate, erect, the apex curved. Stigma linear along the sutural sulcus of the style. Ovules two, collateral, anatropous, epitropous, with two integuments. In male flowers carpels rudimentary. Toral disc intrastaminal, 10-12 (-24) notched. Fruit a polyfollicle, each follicle with abaxial deformation and centrifugal stylar peak, tomentulose and in addition hispid or hirsutulous, two- or one-seeded. Endocarp cartilaginous or corneous, contracting at dehiscence. Seeds with a hard and shining coat; expelled at dehiscence, but remaining attached to the surface of follicles by a placental ribbon continuing the funicle. Large or medium-sized trees. Branching dichasial. Stipules free, lateral. Leaves opposite or ternate, either imparipinnate with stipels, or simple and coriaceous or subcoriaceous; serrate or crenate. Trichomes unicellular, those of the ovary and fruit mostly bristly.

• Discussion

  The generic name Brunellia commemorates Dr. Gabrieli Brunelli, a director of the Botanical Garden of Bologna, Italy. Most of the specific epithets describe a morphological character or represent place names, all self-explanatory. A few are derived from other plant names (comocladifolia, rhoides), from a property (dulcis), or from environmental conditions (hygrothermica). The following names refer to botanists who collected the plants: acostae (M. Acosta-Solis), funckiana (N. Funck), goudotii (J. Goudot), littlei (E. L. Little Jr.), stuebelii (A. Stuebel), trianae (J. J. Triana), and weberbaueri (A. Weberbauer). B. briquetii was dedicated to J. Briquet, B. brittonii to N. L. Britton, B. oliveri to Daniel Oliver, and B. standleyana to P. C. Standley.

  Vernacular names vary with the region. Since these plants are often found in unpopulated areas and lack distinctive properties, many have no vernacular names. The most commonly used names for Brunellia are riñon, cedrillo, chonta, and mani in Colombia, and cedrillo and guásimo in Venezuela. For a complete list of local names see the special index. None of the species of Brunellia have commercial value. The wood may be used locally as timber in construction and as fuel for households.
  Subgeneric Classification
  The species of Brunellia can be arranged in two sections on the basis of simple or compound leaves. Primary subdivisions are determined by the opposite or ternate position of the leaves. Size of flowers has considerable importance in grouping species in the first section. The type of indumentum is a diagnostic feature in some subsections, but in other subsections it may be subordinate to other characters, such as the number of secondary nerves on the leaflets, the nature of the fruit and endocarp, the number of pairs of stipules and stipels, leaf indentation, the nature of the venular reticulum, the relative quantity of indumentum, and the leaf outline. A few monotypical subsections are based on a single outstanding basic character in one species, for example, subsect Velutinae on the velutinous-tomentose (not bristly) pericarp of B. velutina or subsect Ovalifoliae for ternate leaves of B. ovalifolia in a section characterized by compound leaves.
  Because the genus has evolved in several divergent ways, a linear phyletic classification cannot be constructed. The features which appear to be most relevant have often proved to be deficient or to lack consistency. It is difficult to see which have greater importance in determining degrees of relationships.
  The following classification seeks to present natural groups based on what seems to me to be the best arrangement of characters for sections and subsections. They have to be defined by sets of characters which are not always easy to separate sharply in a key. To meet these difficulties I have used multiple character in the keys and provided an additional alternative artificial key for the section Brunellia, a most difficult group.