Eschweilera decolorans Sandwith
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Family
Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)
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Scientific Name
Eschweilera decolorans Sandwith
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Primary Citation
Bull. Misc. Inform., Kew 1932: 214. 1932
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Type Specimens
Specimen 1: Isotype -- N. Y. Sandwith 348
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Description
Author: S. A. Mori and G. T. Prance
Type: Guyana. Essequibo River, Moraballi Creek, near Bartica, 27 Sep 1929 (fl), Sandwith 348 (lectotype, K, designated Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21(II). 1990; isolectotypes, K-3 sheets, NY, RB, P, U).
Description: Trees, to 30 m tall, buttressed or unbuttressed, sometimes slightly basally swollen. Bark brown to reddish-brown, nearly smooth but sometimes with inconspicuous vertical cracks and vertically oriented, irregular depressions caused by peeling of small plates, the lenticels, when present, disposed in vertical rows, the outer bark 0.5-1 mm thick, the inner bark 7-14 mm thick, the slash yellow. Leaves not known to flush just before anthesis; petioles 6-12 mm long; blades widely elliptic to elliptic, 8.5-23 x 3.5-8.5 cm, glabrous, inconspicuously to markedly punctate abaxially, chartaceous, the base usually obtuse to rounded, infrequently acute, the margins entire to crenulate, the apex short to long acuminate ; secondary veins in 9-14 pairs. Inflorescences usually terminal or less frequently in leaf axils, unbranched racemes or occasionally weakly once-branched, the rachis glabrous, often zig-zag and angled, 3-14 cm long, the pedicel glabrous, 1.5-13 mm long. Flowers (3-)5-6(-8) cm diam.; calyx with 6 lobes, the lobes very widely to widely ovate, 4.5-13 x 6-12 mm, ascending, imbricate for most of length, convex abaxially, concave adaxially; petals 6, widely obovate, (15-)26-35 x (12-)18-28 mm, usually white, infrequently light yellow, turning bluish-green when bruised; androecium with staminal ring with ca. 180 stamens, the filaments 1.2-2 mm long, clavate, yellow or white, the anthers 0.5 mm long, yellow, the hood (12-)17-23 x (11-)20-25 mm, forming double coil, usually yellow; hypanthium truncate below calyx, glabrous; ovary 2-3-locular, with 3-10 ovules attached to placenta on floor of locule, the summit of ovary umbonate, 3.5-5 mm high, the style obconical, not readily distinguished from summit of ovary. Fruits depressed globose, 4-5 x 7-8 cm, truncate directly below calycine ring, the calycine ring inserted below middle, the supracalycine zone erect, the pericarp rough, 3-4 mm thick; operculum convex, without or with slight umbo. Seeds unknown.
Common names: Brazil: ripeiro. Guyana: black kakaralli, smooth leaved kakaralli. Surinam: bergmanbarklak. Venezuela: cacao.
Distribution: Most common in the Guianas and eastern Venezuela but also found in central and southwestern Amazonia.
Ecology: Eschweilera decolorans is a canopy tree of non-flooded forest.
Phenology: Eschweilera decolorans flowers most profusely from Jul to Nov but flowering collections have also been made in Mar and May.
Pollination: Mori and Boeke (1987) spent three hours in the crown of E. decolorans and observed at least five species of bee entering the flowers of which they captured Xylocopa aurulenta and Bombus cayennensis. All of the bees entered the flowers with their ventral surfaces facing the hood, apparently to remove nectar from the apex of the double-coiled hood. Some of the bees remained within the flowers for up to 10 seconds. Although several species of euglossine bees entered the flowers they were not captured.
Dispersal: No observations recorded.
Predation: No observations recorded.
Field characters: E. decolorans is characterized by a yellow slash; flowers with usually white petals and yellow a androecial hood that turn bluish-green when bruised; large, imbricate calyx-lobes; a truncate hypanthium; depressed globose fruits that are truncate from the calycine ring to the base; and a rough pericarp.
Taxonomic notes: This species is readily distinguished by the discoloration of the flowers and fruits to bluish-green when they are bruised, a feature reminiscent of species of Couroupita and the sapucaia group of Lecythis (Prance & Mori, 1977; Mori & Prance, 1981a). A series of collections from around Manaus (Loureiro INPA.16140, INPA.16577; Pennington & Ramos P.22617; Prance & Ramos 23084; Rodrigues et al. 3137, 6995, 7011, 7387) have smaller flowers and smaller fruits and have be described as the separate species Eschweilera pseudodecolorans.
Conservation: IUCN Red List: Not on list (Feb, 2014).
Uses: None recorded.
Etymology: The specific epithet refers to the fact that the flowers turn bluish-green when they are bruised.
Source: This species page is based on Mori & Prance, 1990.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to C. Gracie for allowing us to use her images to illustrate the characters of this species.
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Floras and Monographs
Eschweilera decolorans Sandwith: [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.
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Narratives
SEMs of pollen grains of Eschweilera decolorans. Photo by D. Black.
