Brunellia diversifolia C.I.Orozco

  • Authority

    Cuatrecasas, José. 1985. Brunelliaceae (supplement). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 2: 28-103. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Brunelliaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Brunellia diversifolia C.I.Orozco

  • Type

    Type. Colombia. Chocó: On the road from Ansermanuevo to San Jose del Palmar, Alto del Galápago, 2000 m, 18 Feb 1977, Forero et al. 2892 (holotype, COL-199257, not seen; isotypes, MO, US).

  • Description

    Description - Tree 15 m tall. Terminal leafy flowering branchlets rather thin, subterete, slightly striolate, the youngest internode more or less compressed, usually densely or copiously sericeous-strigose, the hairs rather long, straight, appressed. Young shoots, leaves and buds densely ochraceo-villous-sericeous. Stipules geminate, narrow-triangular, acute, appressed-villous, 2-3.5 mm long. Leaves opposite, imparipinnate, 1-2(-3)-jugate, in branches supporting inflorescences usually reduced to trifoliolate and distally to unifoliolate leaves; petiole 4-12 cm, rigid, strigose, terete except for the narrowly sulcate adaxial side; stipels geminate, linear, acute, sericeous, 2-3 mm long; lateral petiolules 7-11 mm long, sulcate adaxially, sericeous; terminal petiolules 15-36 mm long, slender but rigid, sulcate, striolate and sericeous; blades rigidly chartaceous, 8-16 cm long, 4-7.8 cm wide, ovate oblong or ovate-elliptic, obtuse or rounded or shortly cuneate at base, asymmetrical in the lateral ones, symmetrical in the terminal, attenuate to an acuminate, acute apex, the acumen up to 1.5 cm long, margin sinuate, the long shallow, sinuses with a minute, acute, 0.5-0.7 mm long tooth at the end of each secondary nerve, terminal leaflets conspicuously larger than the lateral ones; abaxially rather dark green, main nerves more or less conspicuous, thinly prominulous and ochraceous-strigose, surface minutely reticulate but flat and sparsely appressed pilose; abaxially pale tawny and somewhat shiny-sericeous, densely strigose, hairs straight 0.4-0.8(-1) mm long, antrorse, prostrate, costa very prominent, obtusely carinate and ± striolate, strigose, secondary nerves prominent, 12-17 each side, 5-8(-12) mm apart, ascending, (deviation angle 60-70°), curving in the upper half and terminating at the margin with a minute, acute tooth, tertiary nerves prominulous, irregularly transverse and anastomosing with minor less prominulous veins into a loose reticulum, the wide areoles flat and covered by the general indument. Panicles axillary 8-15 cm long, the branching short and lax, usually the longer first divisions trichotomous the others short, alternate; the main peduncle 1.5-4 cm long, striate, densely sericeous, the axis upwards and the rather short spreading branches with erecto-patent or patent hairs (hirsutulous); bracts triangular-linear, acute, hirsutulous decreasing in length upwards 5-2 mm long; pedicels 0.5-2 mm, hirtellous, flowers isolated or usually 2-4 crowded in small glomerules; bracteoles linear, 1.5-2 mm long. Flowers hermaphrodite, 5-merous or 4-merous, rarely 6-merous. Calyx 6-7 mm diam, when expanded, lobes triangular-ovoid, acute, 2.63 x 1.5-2 mm, sparsely sericeous outside, glabrous except distally sparsely pilose inside, the margins densely papillose; stamens 10(-8), the filaments ca. 3 mm long, densely pilose below, hairs flexuous and up to 1 mm long, distally glabrous, anthers elliptic, 0.6 mm. Carpels 4-5, the ovaries 1-1.2 mm long, ovate, villous-sericeous and distally antrorse-barbate, the hairs about 0.4 mm. Disk obtusely lobate, tomentose, the trichomes 0.2-0.4 mm. Follicles usually 4-1, rarely five maturing, villose-sericeous proximally, antrorsely hirsutulous or villous distally, 2.2-2.3 × 1.6-1.8 mm; endocarp 2 × 1.5-1.9 mm, U-shaped when open and dry, the seeds single, elliptic-ovoid, 1.6 × 1.2 × 1.5-1 mm, the surface shiny and colliculose.

  • Distribution

    Cordillera Occidental of Colombia, Department of Choco, at its limit at the N end of Valle del Cauca, in Andean cloud silva.

    Chocó Colombia South America| Valle del Cauca Colombia South America| Colombia South America|