Eschweilera ovalifolia (DC.) Nied.
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Family
Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)
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Scientific Name
Eschweilera ovalifolia (DC.) Nied.
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Primary Citation
Nat. Pflanzenfam. 3(7): 40. 1892
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Basionym
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Description
Author: Scott A. Mori, Nathan P. Smith & Ghillean T. Prance
Type: Brazil. Amazonas: At mouth of Rio Negro, no date (fl), Martius s. n. (lectotype, M, photo NY, designated by Mori & Prance, 1990; isolectotypes, G, photos of G at A, K, M, NY-F neg. 23206).
Description: Medium to large trees, to 30 m tall, usually without buttresses. Bark gray, with vertical fissures, peeling in irregular sized plates, the slash white to buff-colored, the outer bark laminated. Stems 3-5 mm diam. Leaves present at anthesis; petioles 10-22 mm long; blades usually oblong to narrowly oblong, less frequently elliptic or narrowly obovate, 14-30 x 5-12 cm, glabrous, chartaceous, the base usually obtuse to rounded, less frequently acute, the margins entire to crenulate, the apex short acuminate to acuminate; venation camptodromous close to base, brochidodromous for rest of length, the midrib prominulous adaxially, salient, glabrous abaxially, the secondary veins in 12-19 pairs, slightly decurrent onto midrib, plane to slightly impressed adaxially, salient abaxially, 1 to 2.5 cm apart in middle of leaf blade, the intersecondaries present between most secondaries, the higher order venation reticulate. Inflorescences terminal, in axils of uppermost leaves, or cauline, racemes or once-branched paniculate arrangements of racemes, the rachises puberulous, gray, with numerous raised, vertically oriented lenticels, the principal rachis 5-21 cm long; pedicels jointed above attachment with rachis, 3-4 mm long, persistent after flowers fall. Flowers 4-5 cm diam.; hypanthium truncate at base, densely lenticellate, gray, constrasting with lighter colored calyx-lobes; calyx with six lobes, the lobes very widely to widely ovate, 3.5-6 x 4-6.5 mm, horizontally oriented to erect, slightly imbricate at bases; petals six, widely obovate, usually light yellow, sometimes white, 20-39 x 12-24 mm; androecium zygomorphic, the androecial hood, echinate, externally and anteriorly, with anterior ligular sulcus before echinate vestigial stamens, triple coiled, Note that this species has a triple-coiled hood, the first coil horizontal, the second vertical, and third horizontal to axis of flower, ca. 18-20 x 16-19 mm, yellow; staminal ring with 350-500 stamens, the stamens with narrow staminal ring lip, the inner filaments clavate, yellow, 1.5-2.5 mm long, their anthers 0.4-0.5mm long, the outer filaments angular, their anthers vestigial; ovary half-inferior, 2(3)-locular, each locule with 4-10 basally attached ovules, the thick, obconical style not well differentiated from plateau-like summit of ovary, 2.5-3.5 mm long. Fruits depressed globose, 3.5-5 x 6-8 cm, wider than long, the exocarp markedly lenticellate, the pericarp 2-3 mm thick, the operculum convex, without umbo. Seeds triangular or hemispherical in cross section, brown, the veins prominulous, ca. 3.5 x 3 cm; aril completely surrounding seed, ca. 1 mm thick.
Common names: Brazil. Amazonas: castanharana (Mori & Gracie 22485). Peru. Loreto: machimango (M. Rimachi Y. 11259)
Distribution: A commonly collected species of central and western Amazonia in Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru where is occurs periodically flooded, white water (várzea) riverine forests. Although it is mostly found along white-water rivers, it does ascend the Rio Negro near its confluence with the Amazon River and further upstream on the Rio Negro at the mouths of white-water rivers such as the Jauaperi (Mori & Gracie 22485).
Ecology: A relatively common canopy tree of periodically flooded riverine forests.
Phenology: It blooms from Oct to Mar. The senior author of this species page and G. T. Prance observed many individuals of this species in bloom on a trip between Manaus and Iquitos in Feb and early Mar of 1977. Judy Rankin (pers. comm.) has observed that seeds fall into the water in June.
Pollination: No observations recorded but the species of this genus for which pollination data is known are pollinated by bees. Prance and his colleagues observed a single large bee entering a flower on the tree from which they collected a specimen (Prance et al. 24365)
Dispersal: No observations recorded but the seeds are completely surrounded by a white aril that may be consumed by animals that in turn disperse the seeds. The riverine habitat of E. ovalifolia makes it a candidate for fish dispersal. Fish-dispersed seeds of Lecythidaceae, such as Gustavia augusta, have a hard seed coat and the single cross section image of a seed that we have of E. ovalifolia is relatively thick and, thus, may be resistant to maceration by animals as they pass through digestive tracts. Araujo-Lima and Goulding (1997) report that the tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) consumes at least parts of many species of Lecythidaceae.
Predation: It has been reported that the tambaqui fish and manatees eat the seeds (Mori & Gracie 22485) but it is not know if they are predators or dispersal agents.
Field characters: Eschweilera ovalifolia is distinguished by its riverine habitat; usually oblong leaf blades; lenticellate inflorescence rachis with the lenticels raised about the surface and shaped like lips; lignified pedicel/hypanthium articulation which turns brown below the articulation first and above the articulation later; light yellow flowers; androecial hood with an anterior ligular sulcus; vestigial stamens that are visible on the outside of the androecial hood, i.e., the hood is partially echinate; depressed globose, light brown colored fruits; and an aril that entirely surrounds the seeds; and a relatively thick seed coat.
Taxonomic notes: This species is morphologically similar to the more westernly distributed Eschweilera andina. These two species both have light brown inflorescence rachises with raised, lip-like lenticels. More importantly, both possess seeds that are completely surrounded by an aril. In addition, both fall into the same clade based on morphological and molecular data. On the other hand they are markedly different in that this species has yellow (versus red), possesses a ligular sulcus (versus lacks a sulcus), and has a double androecial hood coile (versus a triple coil).
Conservation: This species does not appear in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. It does not merit special conservation concern because it has a relatively wide distribution, is common where it occurs, and is found in a habitat that is not critically under threat.
Uses: No observations recorded.
Etymology: The species epithet presumably refers to the oval shapes of the leaves but that is a rare leaf blade shape for this species which has mostly oblong leaves.
Source: Based on Mori & Prance (1990).
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to C. Davidson and M. Nee for allowing us to use their images to illustrate the characters of this species.
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Floras and Monographs
Eschweilera ovalifolia (DC.) Nied.: [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.
