Cariniana rubra Gardner ex Miers

  • Family

    Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Cariniana rubra Gardner ex Miers

  • Primary Citation

    Trans. Linn. Soc. London 30: 288. 1874

  • Description

    Author: Scott A. Mori, Ghillean T. Prance & Nathan P. Smith

    Type: Brazil. Goiás: Natividade, without date (fl), Gardner 3743 (holotype, BM; isotypes, CGE, K, OXF).

    Description: Trees, to 15 m tall, the trunk not observed. Bark thick (fide Santos & Souza 1655). Stems glabrescent when young, glabrous at maturity. Leaves persistent at anthesis; petioles 7-11 mm long, slightly winged, sparsely puberulous when young, glabrous when mature; blades elliptic to broadly ovate, 10-16 × 4-7.3 cm, the base obtuse to rounded, slightly decurrent onto petiole, the margins crenulate, the apex acuminate, the acumen 9-15 mm long, often curved; venation mostly eucamptrodromous, the midrib plane to prominulous adaxially, prominent abaxially, sparsely puberulous abaxially when young, becoming glabrous with age, the secondary veins in 24-30 pairs, prominulous on both surfaces, with distinct domatia frequently present at junction with midrib, the domatia with simple trichomes around opening, the tertiary veins oriented parallel to secondary veins. Inflorescences terminal or axillary in uppermost leaves, racemose, unbranched or once-branched, to 25 cm long, the rachises sparsely puberulous, not crustaceous, sparingly lenticellate; pedicels to ca 0.5 mm long, pubescent. Flowers zygomorphic, ca. 1-1.5 cm diam.; calyx-lobes narrowly triangular, ca 2-2.5 × 0.8-1.5 mm, not imbricate, puberulous to pubescent abaxially, the margins finely fimbriate, fused at bases to form calycine rim ca. 1 mm wide; petals strap-like or narrowly obovate, 6-8 × 2-4 mm, red or reddish orange; androecium fused at base to form short tube, markedly prolonged on one side to form ligule, with ca. 50-60 stamens inserted all over adaxial surface of tube and ligule, the lower filaments ca. 0.5 mm long, the upper filaments ca. 1 mm long, both anthers ca. 0.5 mm long, the tube and ligule pilose adaxially, the ligule usually light yellow; ovary 3-locular, the style ca. 0.5-1 mm long, possibly with stylar collar. Fruits cylindrical, 7 × 4-4.5 cm, slightly costate, the calycine ring ca. 1.5 cm below apex, the pericarp thick, 12-15 mm thick at apex; operculum 2-2.5 cm diam., the opercular rim without teeth. Seeds not seen.

    Common names: Brazil. Cachimbeira (= the tree that bears the monkey's pipe), cachimbo de macaco (= monkey's pipe), jequitibtá (a general name for species of Cariniana).

    Distribution: This species is known from the States of Goiás, Mato Grosso, Pará, and Tocantins, Brazil.

    Ecology: A small tree mostly restricted to the cerrado of central Brazil where it is often found in gallery forests. It is sometimes very common (fide Heringer 12225 and Kuhlmann s.n.)

    Phenology: This species has been collected in flower from Nov to Mar and fruits have been gathered from Feb to Apr but it is not known when the mature seeds are dispersed.

    Pollination: There are no observations available for any of the red to orange petaled species of Cariniana. Small, fleshy structures have been noted below the short stamens of the staminal tube which may represent nectaries but this must be confirmed by observations of fresh flowers.

    Dispersal: The unilaterally winged seeds are dispersed by the wind.

    Predation: No observations recorded.

    Field characters: This species is characterized by the small domatia in the axils of some of the secondary veins at their juncture with the midrib; red to orange petals; light yellow to white ligule; cylindric, thick-walled fruits that are slightly costate; and the lack of teeth on the opercular rim.

    Taxonomic notes: The only species that can be confused with C. rubra is C. domestica which is a larger tree with somewhat smaller leaves and fewer secondary veins (Prance in Prance & Mori, 1979). Further study is needed to more definitively determine the differences between these two species.

    Uses: The wood is used for timber (fide Heringer ). Other species of Cariniana also produce valuable timber.

    Etymology: The species epithet refers to the red flowers.

    Conservation: IUCN Red List: not on list (IUCN, 2009). Plantas Raras do Brasil: not on list (Giulietti et al., 2009).

    Source: Based on Prance in Prance and Mori (1979).

    Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Y.-Y. Huang and C. Potaschef for allowing us to use their images to illustrate the characters of this species.

  • Floras and Monographs

    Cariniana rubra Gardner ex Miers: [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.