Couratari sandwithii Prance

  • Family

    Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Couratari sandwithii Prance

  • Primary Citation

    Brittonia 33: 19. 1981

  • Type Specimens

    Specimen 1: Holotype -- J. J. Wurdack 41068, verif. G. T. Prance

  • Description

    Author: Ghillean T. Prance

    Type: Venezuela. Bolívar: Río Paraguaza, between El Carmen and Raudal Maraca, 50-100 km from mouth of river, 1 Jan 1956 (fr), Wurdack & Monachino 41068 (holotype, NY).

    Description: Trees, to 15 m tall, the trunk not buttressed, the young branches glabrous. Leaf blades elliptic to oblong-elliptic, 9-12.5 x 3.5-6 cm, coriaceous, glabrous on both surfaces; midrib prominulous above, prominent and glabrous beneath; secondary veins 10-13 pairs, prominulous on both surfaces; apex rounded to acute or bluntly acuminate; base subcuneate; margins entire; petiole 10-16 mm long, glabrous, weakly canaliculate, rugulose, not winged. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, racemes or paniculate arrangement of racemes, the rachis and rachillae puberulous. Flowers not seen. Fruits campanulate, broadest at apex, tapering from apex to base, 4.5-6 (excluding stipe) x 2.8-3.6 cm, with long thin stipe to 4 cm long, longitudinally striate on exterior, smooth, not crustaceous on exterior, thinly woody, ca. 1-1.5 mm thick, the calycine ring ca. 5 mm below apex, marked by slightly prominent ridge all around perimeter; operculum concave, with central umbo, radially grooved, the column triangular. Seeds oblong, symmetrical, 3.6 x 1.3 cm.

    Common names: None known.

    Distribution: Known only from two collections from Venezuelan Guayana and Surinam.

    Ecology: Very little is known about the ecology of this species.

    Phenology: Collected in fruit in Jan and Feb.

    Pollination: No reports of pollination have been recorded.

    Dispersal: The seeds are wind dispersed.

    Predation: No observations recorded.

    Field characters:

    Taxonomic notes: The relationships of Couratari sandwithii are discussed at the beginning of this section under the C. multiflora superspecies. It is the most distinct species in the group, differing in its larger, coriaceous leaves, and fruits which are smaller and thinner than in most species of Couratari.

    Conservation: IUCN Red List: Vulnerable D2 ver 2.3 (World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. Couratari sandwithii. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 12 March 2014.).

    Uses: None known.

    Etymology: This species was named in honor of N. Y. Sandwith.

    Source: This species page is based on Prance in Mori & Prance, 1990.

  • Floras and Monographs

    Couratari sandwithii Prance: [Article] 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.