Zygia obolingoides

  • Title

    Zygia obolingoides

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Zygia obolingoides L.Rico

  • Description

    56. Zygia obolingoides L. Rico, Kew Bull. 46: 502, fig 3. 1991. — "Bolivia, Krukoff 10798 . . . Depto La Paz, Prov. of Larecaja, Turi [properly Tuiri] . . . on left bank of Rio Mapiri [±15°20'S, 68°10/W]." — Holotypus, NY (fl.)!; isotypus, F (said to have fruit, but not presently available for study).

    Amply foliate, cauliflorous, arborescent shrubs 4.5-6 m, glabrous except for sordid-puberulent fls, the thinly chartaceous lfts olivaceous above, paler yellowish-olivaceous beneath, the relatively large reddish fls densely congested on a short, sessile, thickened axis arising directly from knots on annotinous and older wood, each cluster ±4 cm diam. Stipules unknown. Lf-formula 1/3½, the lfts 14 per lf; petioles terete, together with wrinkled pulvinus 9-17 x 3-4.8 mm; nectary at tip of petiole sessile or sunken, shallowly cupular ±2.5 mm diam, a smaller, round or rhombic nectary between the furthest pair of lfts only or between all but the lowest pair; rachis of pinnae 12-21 cm, the small first posterior lft inserted ±1.5-2 cm from lf-pulvinus, the further pairs accrescent, the longest interpinnal segment 5-7.5 cm; lft-pulvinules 4.5-6 mm; lfts elliptic or ovate-elliptic from either broadly or narrowly cuneate, inequilateral base, acutely acuminate, the distal pair 13-23 x 5.5 8.5 cm, 2.4—3.1 times as long as wide; venation pinnate, the subcentric, almost straight midrib giving rise on each side to 6-8 major (and random few intercalary) secondary nerves weakly brochidodrome within the plane margin, the first 1-2 secondaries on posterior side of midrib sometimes a little stronger than succeeding ones but not or scarcely attaining midblade, all these with the tertiary and openly reticular venules immersed or nearly so above, prominulous beneath. Peduncles 0-3 cm; axis of spikes 2-2.5 cm, at middle ±2.5 mm diam, excavate around attachment of each fl as an elliptic pit; bracts linear-oblanceolate 2.5-3.3 mm, deciduous; perianth finely puberulent overall, neither calyx nor corolla striate-nerved; calyx campanulate or deeply campanulate 8.5-10 x 4-4.5 mm, the solid base (a dilated pedicel, as seen in longitudinal section) 0.5-1.2 mm, the orifice irregularly cleft 0.5-2.5 mm, one sinus between the ovate teeth deeper than the rest; corolla 9.5-16 mm, broadly infundibuliform-campanulate, the limb unequally cleft 0.5-4.5 mm deep, appearing spathi- form; androecium 90-104-merous, 25-44 mm, the stemonozone 0.8-2 mm, the tube 9-11 mm, a trifle shorter than corolla, the tassel several-seriate; intrastaminal disc lobed, 0.4-0.55 mm; ovary shortly stipitate, at anthesis glabrous or microscopically puberulent. Pods not seen, described and figured in the protologue from Krukoff "10795," perhaps a mistake for isotypic 10798, this not currently available for study; described as subcylindric, obtuse at both ends, slightly decurved, 18-20 x 3.5 cm, 18-seeded, the plumply discoid seeds stacked contiguously along the cavity, broadside up, mutually compressed (except the conic one at each end of cavity), the papery testa 3-nerved, lacking pleurogram.

    In gallery woodland at ±500-700 m, very local in the foothills of the Bolivian Andes, along the valley of Río Mapiri and its affluents, prov. La Paz, in latitude ±15°20'S between 68° and 68°45'W. — Not mapped. — Fl. IX-XII.

    The fruit illustrated by Rico (caption to fig. 3) is said to be from Krukoff 10795, but this is a mistake for 10798 (at F).