Morphology of the Lecythis pisonis clade.

• Title

  Morphology of the Lecythis pisonis clade.

• Authors

  Scott Alan Mori, Caroline Carollo, Nathan P. Smith

• Scientific Name

  Lecythis Loefl.

• Description

  From Huang et al. (in review)
  Lecythis pisonis clade (100% BS; Figs. 2A, 4) —This clade comprises all four species of Lecythis section Pisonis recognized by Mori and Prance (1981) and Mori (1990b) and several other species that were included in synonymy by these authors but represent separate species that have not yet been resurrected (Mori, unpubl. data). The species of this clade are found throughout lowland rainforests in Central and South America but at low densities. Morphological synapomorphies include the presence of a bluish-green color caused by the oxidation of wounded tissue (Fig. 2A; character 2), an annular expansion below the apex of the style (38) (Fig. 3c), and sulcate seeds (43) (Fig. 3G). The sulcate seeds are unique to this clade and do not occur elsewhere in the Lecythidaceae. In addition to these features, the bark is deeply fissured and laminated and the fruits are larger than found in any group of Lecythidaceae (see Huang et al., 2011: 407). The monophyly of Section Pisonis found in this study is congruent with previous studies (Mori, 1990c; Mori et al., 2007; Huang et al., 2011). Although the monophyly of Section Pisonis is strongly supported, species circumscriptions within the clade are problematic, especially for L. pisonis as circumscribed by Mori (1990b).