Zygia megistocarpa

  • Title

    Zygia megistocarpa

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Zygia megistocarpa (Barbosa) E.Rico

  • Description

    32. Zygia megistocarpa (Barbosa) L. Rico, Kew Bull. 46: 502. 1991. Pithecellobium megistocarpum Barbosa, Caldasia 14: 404. 1986. — "Peru, Amazonas, río Cenepa, vecinidad de Huampami, cerca de 5 km E de Chávez a Valdivia, cerca 78°30'W, 4°30/S, 200-250 msnm... 31Jul 1978, E. Anchuach [.sic] 1211 fr." — Holotypus, Ernesto Ancuash 1211, MO 29819831 = NY Neg. 12890!, paratypus (fl.), R. Kayap 46, MO 2181778! = NY Neg. 12888.

    Macrophyllidious cauliflorous trees 3-8 m, glabrous except for slender, shortly spiciform inflorescence, the ample chartaceous lfts sublustrous above, dull and a little paler beneath, the woody fruits of exceptional size and girth. Stipules unknown. Lf- formula i/1½-2½, petiole obese, drum-shaped ±5-8 x 4-6 mm; no lf-nectary seen (material incomplete); pinna-rachises ±7-17 cm, the relatively small proximal exterior lft well below middle; lft-pulvinules obese smooth 8-12 x 4-5 mm; lfts elliptic or elliptic-obovate from strongly inequilateral, narrow-cuneate base, shortly acutely acuminate, the distal pair 25-32 x 9-16 cm, ±2-3 times as long as wide; venation asymmetrically pinnate, the straight costa a little excentric, the major secondary nerves ±7—9 on each side, the first 2-3 on posterior side of blade incurved- ascending beyond midblade and expiring short of anastomosis, those of anterior side more nearly equi-long, all secondary veins sharply prominent dorsally, less so ventrally, the connecting tertiary venules faint. Spikes arising singly, directly from knots on defoliate branches, to 20-fld, the axis together with very short peduncle to 3 cm; bracts triangular acute ±1 mm, persistent; fls sessile, the whitish perianth finely minutely strigulose overall, nowhere striately nerved; calyx campanulate, including solid broad-cuneate base 2x1.7 mm, the depressed-deltate teeth scarcely 0.3 mm; corolla 11.5 mm, tubular for nearly 2/3 its length, then abruptly dilated, irregularly cleft into ovate lobes ±2 mm; androecium ±100-merous, 31 mm, the tube nearly as long as corolla, the filaments in several ranks, pink distally; ovary conic distally, puberulent at anthesis; stigma poriform 0.2 mm diam. Pods subsessile, in profile broad-linear, gently decurved, 13-35 x 4.5-5 cm, bicarinate by obtusely dilated sutural ribs, 12-16-seeded, the rigidly pithy-ligneous valves low-convex over each seed, in section ±4 mm thick, the epicarp light brown or yellow-fawn glabrate, becoming finely tessellate and scurfy, the endocarp smooth; seeds plumply compressed ovoid becoming distorted by mutual pressure and obliquely rhomboid ±2.5-4 x 2.5-3.2 x 1-1.3 cm, the dull brown, papery crustaceous exotesta ±0.2-0.3 mm thick in section, pleurogram 0.

    In primary wet forest near 200-250 m, known only from the valley of Río Cenepa, tributary of the lower Marañón River at ±4°30'S, 78°10'W in prov. Bagua of dept. Amazonas, Peru. — Map 27. — Fl. X-II(-?). — Iwanchi sampiji, wainim.