Eschweilera pedicellata (Rich.) S.A.Mori

  • Authority

    Mori, S. A. & Prance, Ghillean T. 1990. Lecythidaceae - Part II: The zygomorphic-flowered New World genera (Couroupita, Corythophora, Bertholletia, Couratari, Eschweilera, & Lecythis). With a study of secondary xylem of Neotropical Lecythidaceae by Carl de Zeeuw. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21: 1-376. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Lecythidaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Eschweilera pedicellata (Rich.) S.A.Mori

  • Type

    Type. French Guiana. Without locality, 1792 (fl), Leblond s.n. (holotype, P, photo NY).

  • Synonyms

    Lecythis pedicellata Rich., Eschweilera longipes (Poit.) Miers, Lecythis longipes Poit., Lecythis longipes f. genuina Sagot, Eschweilera longipes (Poit.) Miers, Lecythis platycarpa Poit., Eschweilera platycarpa (Poit.) Miers, Lecythis longipes f. platycarpa Sagot, Eschweilera longipes f. platycarpa (Sagot) R.Knuth, Lecythis idatimonoides O.Berg, Eschweilera idatimonoides (O.Berg) Miers, Lecythis pilosa Poepp. ex O.Berg, Eschweilera pilosa (Poepp. ex O.Berg) Miers, Lecythis wullschlaegeliana O.Berg, Lecythis basizone O.Berg, Lecythis macrophylla O.Berg, Eschweilera macrophylla (O.Berg) Miers, Eschweilera flaccida Miers, Chytroma perspicua Miers

  • Description

    Description - Small trees, to 20 m tall, unbuttressed. Bark smooth, with vertically oriented lenticels, often with reddish or maroon cast, thin, the outer 1 mm thick, the inner 2-3 mm thick, yellowish-white when cut. Leaf blades usually elliptic to narrowly elliptic, infrequently narrowly obovate to oblanceolate, 9-26 x 4.5-9.5 cm, glabrous, chartaceous, with 10-13 pairs of lateral veins; apex acuminate; base acute to obtuse; margins entire; petiole 4-11 mm long. Inflorescences of simple racemes, terminal, in axils of uppermost leaves, or from young branches below leaves; rachis puberulous, 1-4(-14) cm long; pedicels jointed at attachment with rachis, often tinged with pink or red, usually drying black, glabrous or puberulous, 10-35 mm long. Flowers 3.5-5 cm diam.; calyx with six lobes, the lobes widely to narrowly ovate, 6-11 x 4-7 mm, imbricate at bases only, convex to carinate abaxially, flat to concave adaxially, green, often tinged with pink, red or purple; petals six, widely to narrowly obovate, white, white with tinges of pink or purple, entirely pink to purple, or infrequently yellow, 24-50 x 15-33 mm; hood of androecium white or white with tinges of pink, ca. 25 x 20 mm, triply coiled, the appendages yellow; staminal ring with 250-305 stamens, the filaments clavate, white, 1.5-2 mm long, the anthers 0.5 mm long, yellow; ovary 2-locular, each locule with 7-10 basally attached ovules, the style not well differentiated from summit of ovary, 2-4 mm long. Fruits depressed turbinate to turbinate, often asymmetric at base, Calyx-lobes often persisting as woody triangular knobs, 2-4 x 2.5-5 cm, the pericarp 3-5 mm thick; operculum convex, umbonate. Seeds hemispherical to triangular in cross section, ca. 25 x 18 mm, with laterally attached, white funicle-aril.

  • Discussion

    Collections of this species have been frequently identified as Eschweilera longipes (Poit.) Miers. In his protologue, Poiteau (1825) provides an exact illustration of the species and therefore there is no doubt that the epithet longipes has been correctly applied to this species. Unfortunately, because of the law of priority, E. longipes has to be placed in synonymy under the earlier and poorly described Lecythis pedicellata. The species is placed in Eschweilera because of its 2-locular ovary, completely coiled androecial hood, and well-developed lateral aril of the seed. Eschweilera pedicellata is a very common, understory tree in the Guianas and Amazonia. It is characterized by small to medium-sized (infrequently large) chartaceous leaves; simple racemes; large flowers with long Calyx-lobes; petals with varying degrees of pink or purple; androecial hoods with a triple coil; and small, depressed-turbinate or turbinate fruits.

    It is a steady state flowerer, producing several to less than 100 flowers daily throughout the dry season in French Guiana (Mori & Prance, 1987a). The flowers are visited, and presumably pollinated, by large species of euglossine bees such as Eulaema peruviana (Mori & Boeke, 1987; Mori et al., 1978).

    Although Aublet’s description of Lecythis zabucaja is partially based on E. pedicellata, this name is more correctly applied to the common, large-fruited Lecythis distributed in the Guianas and parts of Amazonia (see discussion of L. zabucaja in this monograph).

  • Common Names

    kakaralli, swamp wena kakaralli, bergi manbarklak, bergi-manbarklaki, dwergman barklak, manbarklak, baikaaki, ahot noir, Matamatá, matamata branco, ma-tamata roxa, wana

  • Distribution

    A small tree frequent in non-flooded and riverine forests throughout the Guianas and eastern and central Amazonia. It flowers most profusely from Jul to Dec.

    Guyana South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| Brazil South America| Acre Brazil South America| Amapá Brazil South America| Amazonas Brazil South America| Pará Brazil South America| Rondônia Brazil South America| Roraima Brazil South America|