Gustavia gigantophylla Sandwith

  • Authority

    Prance, Ghillean T. & Mori, S. A. 1979. Lecythidaceae - Part I. The actinomorphic-flowered New World Lecythidaceae (Asteranthos, Gustavia, Grias, Allantoma & Cariniana). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21: 1-270. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Lecythidaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Gustavia gigantophylla Sandwith

  • Type

    Type. Fanshawe 4537 (= Maguire & Fanshawe 22888) (Lectotype, K, here designated; isolectotypes, K, US). Guyana. Essequibo River, Kamuni Creek, Groete Creek, 18 Apr 1944 (fl, fr).

  • Description

    Description - Trees, unbranched or sparsely branched, to 10 m tall, the leaf-bearing branches 9-15 mm in diameter, the leaves tightly grouped at their ends. Leaf blades oblanceolate, 69-110 x 18-25 cm, glabrous, chartaceous, with 34-48 pairs of lateral veins, narrowly tapered from the middle to an acute base; apices acuminate; margins serrulate or serrate. Petioles 4-26 x 5-7.5 mm, semicircular in cross section. Inflorescences cauline, racemose, densely rusty-pubescent, with 3-6 flowers, the rachis 40-130 mm; pedicels 20-50 mm, subtended by a single caducous bract and bearing at or above the middle 2 ovate to oblong bracteoles 6-12 x 4-12 mm. Flowers 13-14 cm in diameter; calyx with 4 broadly triangular lobes, 3.5-5 x 8-14 mm, rusty-pubescent, the margins somewhat ciliate; petals 8, narrowly oblong, narrowly obovate, or oblanceolate, 50-90 x 15-33 mm, puberulous, white; connate androecial base 11-17 mm high, creamy-yellow, the outermost filaments 10-24 mm, white; anthers 2.5-3.5 mm; ovary without costae, rusty-pubescent, 7-8 locular?, the summit white-tomentose with some glabrous spots; style 2.5 mm. Fruits globose, truncate at the apex, 37-65 x 50-67 mm in diameter, without persistent calyx lobes or costae. Seeds angular in cross section, 22 x 22 mm, without distinctive funicles.

  • Discussion

    Ecology. Fanshawe, in Sandwith (1955), reports “This is a very distinct localized species apparently confined to lateritic soils. It has a very different habit from G. augusta, rarely branched, with this crown of very large leaves. The flowers are always cauliflorous. The tree only grows to 20 ft high and 4 in diameter, and occurs both in Mora and miscellaneous forest. The only fruit found (now in Kew Herb.) is depressed-globose, greenish, with the capitulum (sic, i e, the intracalycary zone, or the “operculum” of Miers) below the level of the top of the fruit.”

    Steyermark and Rabe (96235) have since collected the species in Sucre, Venezuela in evergreen forest at between 600-700 meters. Their collection differs from those made at lower elevations by having fewer, more widely spaced lateral veins.

  • Common Names

    Cacao Cimarrón, Cola Pava

  • Distribution

    This species is known only from Guyana and northeastern Venezuela.

    Venezuela South America| Sucre Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America| Guyana South America|