Eschweilera tenax (Moritz ex O.Berg) Miers

  • Family

    Lecythidaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Eschweilera tenax (Moritz ex O.Berg) Miers

  • Primary Citation

    Trans. Linn. Soc. London 30: 270. 1874

  • Basionym

    Lecythis tenax Moritz ex O.Berg

  • Description

    Author: Scott A. Mori & Nathan P. Smith

    Type: Venezuela. 1865. J. W. K. Moritz s.n. (lectotype, BM [BM000953877]).

    Description: Trees, to 25 m, sometimes buttressed. Bark with irregular depressions, these lighter in color than rest of bark. Leaves: petioles 5-12 mm long; blades elliptic to widely elliptic, 5-16 x 3-9 cm, glabrous, punctate abaxially, the base acute to rounded, the margins entire to minutely crenulate, the apex short acuminate; secondary veins in 7-13 pairs. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, simple or once-branched, the ultimate axes racemose, the principal rachis 2-17 cm long, glabrous, the pedicels 10-30 mm long, glabrous or puberulous. Flowers 2.5-6 cm diam.; hypanthium cuneate, glabrous to puberulous; calyx-lobes 6, very widely to widely ovate, 4-8 x 3.5-10 mm, erect, slightly imbricate to imbricate, convex to slightly carinate abaxially, sometimes slightly gibbous at base, plane to concave adaxially; petals 6, widely obovate, 17-30 x 11-24 mm, yellow or infrequently white; androecium zygomorphic, the staminal ring with ca. 140 stamens, the filaments clavate, 1.5-2mm long, sometimes geniculate towards apex, the anthers 0.7-1 mm long, the hood 15-22 x 15-22 mm, forming 2 coils, yellow; gynoecium with 2-locular ovary, the ovules 7-8 (per locule?), inserted on basal placenta, the summit obconical, 2.5-3 mm, the style undifferentiated. Fruits depressed globose to globose, 3-6 x 5-8 cm, the pericarp 3-5 mm thick, the pedicel persistent as woody knob, the supracalycine zone erect, the infracalycine zone tapered to stalk, the operculum convex, slightly umbonate, especially when young. Seeds 1-5 per fruit, 2.5-5 x 2-5 cm; aril absent.

    Common names: Venezuela: cajeton, curtidor montaiiero, ollita.

    Distribution: This species is found along the coastal range of Venezuela and in Trinidad.

    Ecology: A canopy tree of non-flooded habitats in cloud forest from 1000 to 2100 m.

    Phenology: Flowers have been collected throughout the year. Fruits have been collected in Mar, May, and Oct.

    Pollination: No reports of pollination have been recorded.

    Dispersal: No reports of dispersal have been recorded.

    Predation: No observations recorded.

    Field characters: -

    Taxonomic notes: The collections from Yaracuy possess bigger leaves and flowers than those centered around Colonia Tovar. Similarly, the leaves of the Trinidadian population are larger. However, floral and fruit structures are similar and therefore we have chosen to consider all of these populations as belonging to the same species. Pittier (1937) separated E. monosperma from E. tenax by the single-seeded fruits and the more numerous lateral veins (8 vs.10) of the leaves of the former. However, seed number may vary from one to five and such a slight difference in pairs of lateral veins is to be expected as part of normal intraspecific variation. Further fieldwork is needed in order to determine if the considerable variation shown by E. tenax merits taxonomic recognition.

    Conservation: IUCN Red List: Not on list.

    Uses: Steyermark (94955) states that the wood is the hardest of all the species growing in the cloud forest of Cerro Humo and that it is used for posts in the local construction of houses.

    Etymology: The name "texnax" means strong.

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

  • Floras and Monographs

    Eschweilera tenax (Moritz ex O.Berg) Miers: [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.