Flower morphology of Lecythis poiteaui

• Title

  Flower morphology of Lecythis poiteaui

• Authors

  Scott Alan Mori

• Description

  Lecythis poiteaui is a bat pollinated species that opens its flowers at dusk and drops them around 3:30 am. Fresh large, flowers with green petals and a white androecial hood found on the ground in the morning allow easy identification of this species. The only other documented bat-pollinated species is Lecythis barnebyi but it has adaxially white and abaxial red petals as well as much larger leaves than does L. poiteaui. Flower morphology is very similar in both species in that both have over a thousand stamens in the staminal ring, very long anterior hood extensions, a short proximal hood extension, proximal staminodes in the hood, a obliquely oriented style, and mucilage ducts in the hypanthium and calyx-lobes.