Gustavia augusta L.
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Family
Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)
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Scientific Name
Gustavia augusta L.
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Primary Citation
Pl. Surin. 12: 17. 1775
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Description
Author: Scott A. Mori
Type: Surinam. Between 1755 and 1770, Carl Gustav Dahlberg s.n. (lecotype, LINN, microfiche no. 8632.2, designated Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21(1). 1979).
Description: Understory trees, to 22 m tall, the trunk not buttressed. Bark scalloped, the inner bark reddish. Leaves clustered at ends of branches; petioles absent to 40 mm long; blades 16-48 x 4-13 cm, narrowly obovate to oblanceolate, glabrous, the base acute to cuneate, the margins entire to serrulate, infrequently serrate, the apex acute or acuminate; secondary veins in 14-22 pairs, the tertiary veins weakly percurrent, the higher order veins forming areoles. Inflorescences usually terminal, less frequently axillary or cauline, racemose; pedicels 15-75 mm long. Flowers actinomorphic, 9-15 cm diam.; calyx with lobes nearly absent or of 4 broadly rounded or triangular lobes, not imbricate; petals (6)8(9), white, often with tinges of pink; androecium with stamens arising from rim of staminal tube, the filaments white throughout or white toward base and pink toward apex, the anthers with poricidal dehiscence; ovary inferior, 4-7-locular. Fruits indehiscent, 3-7 x 3-8 cm, globose, truncate at apex. Seeds black, the aril straight, surrounded by yellow, contorted funicle; embryo with plano-convex cotyledons
Common Names: Colombia: matamatá pequeña. Venezuela: coco de mono, guatero, rosa de muerte. Surinam: arepawana, lanaballi, omi-taroeipa, watramamabobbi. French Guiana: bois puant (after its unpleasantly smelling wood), camaca, cona-da-cona-dou, man tapouhoupa. Brazil: jenipaparana, jeniparana. Peru: chopé, copa de mono, sacha chopé (Smith et al., 2007).
Distribution: A widespread Guianan and Amazonian species that is also found in Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, and Brazil. It also occurs in the northern part of the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil.
Ecology: A common riverine species that is less commonly found in non-flooded habitats. Poiteau (1825) noted that this species is more common in more open areas than it is in dense forest, and that it readily sprouts from the base after it has been cut.
Phenology: Schöngart et al. (2002), in a study of the phenology of species in an Amazonian floodplain forest near Manaus, report that G. augusta is an evergreen species. It flushes new leaves and sheds senescent leaves throughout the year, and is never leafless at any time during the year. They observed that G. augusta flowers and fruits from February though September when the forests that it grows in are flooded. In the Guianas, flowering collections have been made throughout the year, but most of them come from Sep to Dec and the fruiting collections from Jan to May.
Pollination: The large, actinomorphic flowers of G. augusta are nectarless, and, in contrast to all other species of Lecythidaceae except other species of Gustavia, it possesses poricidal anthers. Observations on the pollination of this species (Mori & Boeke, 1987) have been made in central French Guiana. At peak flowering in this area, one or two flowers are borne by the inflorescences which are scattered within the crown. However, for much of the flowering season only one or two flowers in the entire tree may be in anthesis on any given day. The flowers of G. augusta in this area opened during the night and were visited during the day, but especially in the morning, by several species of Trigona bees that do not appear to be efficient pollinators because they fill their corbiculae on a single visit to a flower. Before dawn individuals of a larger bee, Megalopta genalis, was observed to enter the flowers, make a buzzing sound, and leave after short visits. A local insect collector reported that he frequently caught M. genalis in light traps during the night. We conclude that at least at this locality G. augusta is buzz pollinated by M. genalis. A much greater variety of bees probably enter the flowers because the pollen reward, in contrast to species with androecial hoods, can be easily reached by all kinds and sizes of bees, but the poricidal anthers suggest that bees capable of buzz pollination are the most efficient pollinators.
Dispersal: The seeds of G. augusta are surrounded by an edible pulp derived from the septa and the placentae and also possess a yellow, contorted, and edible aril , at least by animals. We have seen fruits of this species that have been gnawed open by animals. Roosmalen (1985) reports that spider monkeys disperse the seeds of this species endozoochorously and that scatter-hoarding animals carry away the seeds after the fruits fall to the ground. Grenand et al. (2004) report that the brown capuchin monkey (Cebus apella) eats the fruits and Smith et al. (2007) state that fish, such as the gamitana (Colossoma macropomum), pacu (Mylossoma sp.), and sabalo (Brycon sp.) feed on the fruits according to local people along the Yanayacu River in Peru. Marilyn Norconk has taken video of a white-faced saki monkey (Pithecia pithecia) eating the pulp of a fruit of Gustavia augusta in the Brownsberg Nature Park, Suriname. Dr. Norconk states that "The white-face sakis did not eat G. augusta seeds during that observation period." (pers. commun., 09 Dec 2009) so it is possible that this monkey may play a role in the seed dispersal of this species. She adds that "Generally all saki species express a preference for seeds from immature fruit (although mature seeds are eaten in some species)" and further states "Jack [the name of a monkey] might have eaten seeds when the G. augusta fruits were mature, but we missed that window of observation." The video can be seen at http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mnorconk/saki-feeding-ecology.html. Norconk and Veres (2011) report that a species of Pithecia eats the aril of this species.
Predation: Marilyn Norconk (pers. commun., 09 Dec 2009) reports that white-face saki monkeys eat the pulp of mature fruits of G. augusta and often masticate and destroy immature seeds as well.
Field characters: This species is characterized by its usually small stature; leaf blades broader above the middle; flowers actinomorphic and large (9-15 cm diam.); fruits indehiscent, globose; and seeds black with a yellow, contorted aril surrounding a more-or-less straight aril.
Taxonomic notes: The lectotype of Gustavia augusta, and the type of the genus, is collection 863.2 archived in the herbarium of the Linnean Society in London (Mori, 1979) . The three sheets in the Linnean Herbarium give no indication of the collector. The collection, however, was probably made by Carl Gustav Dahlberg, a Swedish soldier who originally went to Surinam as a mercenary sometime around 1746 (Ek, 1991), married a well-to-do widow who owned two plantations, and became wealthy enough to return to Sweden in 1754, 1761, and 1771-1775. During his first return to Sweden, Dahlberg made the acquaintance of Linnaeus who sent his pupil Rolander back to Surinam with Dahlberg, but Rolander only stayed in the country for six months. On his third trip he brought back a collection of 186 specimens that were first given to Gustav III of Sweden and subsequently transferred to Linnaeus. These plants served as the basis for Plantae Surinamensis published in 1775 by Linnaeus which, in turn, was based on the dissertation of Jacob Alm (Stafleu & Cowan, 1976). Although the collections in the Linnaean Herbarium are not marked as coming from Dahlberg, others at the Swedish Natural History Museum (S) are clearly noted as being gathered by Dahlberg. It should be noted that sheet number 863.3 is a mixed collection with the flower coming from G. augusta and the fruit and leaf from a species of Eschweilera. The name Gustavia could refer to King Gustav III or to Carl Gustav Dahlberg. The latter option is endorsed by the current botanical secretary of the Linnean collection, Dr. John R. Edmondson (pers. comm., 2005). Gustavia augusta is a wide-ranging species and has considerable variation in flower color, especially in the amount of pink on the petals and filaments; the filaments may be entirely white or only white for a short distance at the base and pink for the remainder of the length. The calyx varies from being nearly entire and forming an undulate rim to having four, shallow, rounded or triangular lobes. The Guianan and eastern Amazonian individuals tend to have the undulate rim while calyx-lobes are more developed in individuals gathered from western Amazonia.
Conservation: IUCN Red List: not on list (IUCN, 2009). Plantas Raras do Brasil : not on list (Giulietti et al., 2009).
Uses: In French Guiana, the Creóles around St. Georges use the inner bark or young leaves mixed with kaolin in cold water as a remedy for vomiting in children; the Palikur Indians use the seeds, bark, or young leaves to make a plaster that is applied to the lesions of leishmaniasis; and a juice extracted from the bark and leaves of G. augusta is drunk from the fruit of another Lecythidaceae, the canari macaque (Lecythis zabucajo Aubl.) (Grenand et al., 2004) as a remedy for dizziness. The label of Jangoux 756 states that a tea made from the bark is used to treat snake bite by the Urubu-Kaapor Indians of Brazil. The fruits are reported to be edible on the labels of some Peruvian collections (Peters 3, Peters 9, Tessmann 3410) and this has been confirmed by Nigel Smith based on observations he made near San Martin Tipishca near the mouth of the Samiria, an affluent of the lower Marañon in Peru (pers. comm., 2006, herbarium voucher IHC 7845, Smith et al., 2007). The seeds have been reported to be a source of oil on the label of Krukoff 1072. Label data also indicate that the wood is used in house construction (Diaz 6143) and for tool handles (Krukoff 1072, Rosales 58). Gustavia augusta is occasionally grown as an ornamental.
Etymology: The specific epithet refers to the beauty of the plant.
Source: Based on Mori in Prance and Mori (1979).
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Bobbi Angell for preparing the illustration and to Carmen Galdames and Carol Gracie for allowing the use of their images.
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Floras and Monographs
Gustavia augusta L.: [Article] Prance, Ghillean T. & Mori, S. A. 1979. Lecythidaceae - Part I. The actinomorphic-flowered New World Lecythidaceae (Asteranthos, Gustavia, Grias, Allantoma & Cariniana). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21: 1-270.
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Narratives
SEM of pollen grains and a floral aroma graph of Gustavia augusta. Photo by D. Black.
