Vismia lateriflora Ducke
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Authority
Ewan, Joseph A. 1962. Synopsis of the South American species of Vismia (Guttiferae). Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 35: 293-377. pls. 1-5.
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Family
Clusiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Lectotype: Esperança, at the mouth of Río Javary, Amazonas, Brazil, Ducke 25054 (isolectotype, K). Syntype: Presidente Marquez Station, on the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Kuhlmann 21223 (duplicate syntypes, K, US).
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Description
Description - [No description provided.]
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Discussion
Vismia lateriflora may prove to be but a seasonal phase of V. angusta with axillary inflorescences produced through suppression of the usual terminal panicle, induced perhaps at times of exceptional water supply or by some other microclimatic factor. Still, the oblong leaves of V. angusta are dull above, whereas the ovate, acute leaves of V. lateriflora are more or less shining above as if varnished. Vismia angusta typically has distinctly cordate leaves, the midrib and secondaries prominently raised beneath, and marginal or submarginal areolate venation. Its spherical flower buds, opening tardily, are yellowish-green or sulphur-colored on the outside, the petals heavily yellowish comose, with the hairs often so long as to extend beyond the petals, forming a kind of tuft in the center of the flower. V. lateriflora, on the other hand, has ovate leaves of a distinctly thinner texture, a truncate or at most subcordate base, and the nerves not prominently raised beneath, areolate with loop veins well inside the leaf margin. Moreover, the flower buds in Vismia lateriflora are longovoid, early opening, brownish on the outside, the petals less densely comose, the hairs not exceeding the petals. The pubescence of the lower leaf surfaces of the two species is similar but in V. angusta it has a dusky quality, due to the presence of minute black glands, one gland to each areole of the lower leaf surface. In V. lateriflora the thin-tomentulose lower leaf surface is distinctly reddish and, though the minute dark glands are present in this species as well, they are obscure. Though the lateral axillary panicles especially characterize V. lateriflora, both lateral and terminal inflorescences may occur (e.g., Macbride 5019 and Krukoff 8328), or, again, lateral panicles may be wholly absent and only the terminal ones present. In this connection, V. ramuliflora, which might from the name be thought to be an earlier name for this species, is, in fact, a synonym of V. sessilifolia, of the coast of northern South America.