Terminalia lucida Hoffmanns. ex Mart.

  • Authority

    Stace, C. A. & Alwan, A.-R A. 2010. Combretaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 107: 1-369. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Combretaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Terminalia lucida Hoffmanns. ex Mart.

  • Type

    Type. Brazil. Siber, Pará, 1812, von Hoffmannsegg s.n. (lectotype, BR, here designated; isolectotype, BM).

  • Synonyms

    Myrobalanus lucida Kuntze, Terminalia firma Mart., Terminalia hayesii Pittier, Terminalia nyssifolia Britton, Terminalia eriantha Benth., Terminalia scutifera Planch. ex M.A.Lawson, Myrobalanus scutifera Kuntze

  • Description

    Species Description - Briefly deciduous tree 5-20 m. Leaves 4.5-14 × 2-7.5 cm thickly chartaceous to coriaceous, oblong- or elliptic-obovate or narrowly so, subacute to shortly acuminate at apex, cuneate to attenuate at base, glabrous except sometimes appressed-pubescent on veins, domatia absent. Venation brochidodromous or eucamptodromous-brochidodromous; midvein moderate, prominent; secondary veins 5-9 pairs, moderately spaced, originating at moderately acute angles, slightly curved distally, scarcely prominent; intersecondary veins rarely present; tertiary veins usually randomly reticulate, sometimes weakly percurrent; higher order veins usually well-developed; areolation close, usually well developed, not to slightly prominent. Petiole 0.7-2 cm, glabrous to pubescent, eglandular. Inflorescences 7.5-12 cm, simple, with all flowers bisexual; peduncle 1.5-2 cm, pubescent; rhachis 6-10 cm, densely pubescent. Flowers pentamerous, 3-4 × 2.5-3.5 mm; lower hypanthium 1-2 mm, rufous-to white-tomentose; upper hypanthium 1.5-2 mm, cupuliform to campanulate, pubescent to tomentose; calyx lobes 0.6-1 mm, usually revolute, pubescent; disk villous; stamens 2.5-4 mm; style 2.8-4 mm, villous except glabrous near tip. Fruits usually few, disposed along whole length or mostly near apex of rhachis, 1.7-3 × 2.5-3.8 cm, strongly flattened, rhombic or suborbicular to transversely broadly elliptic in side view, rounded or truncate to emarginate at apex, pseudostipitate at base, densely pubescent at first, becoming subglabrous at maturity; wings 2, stiff, equal, 0.9-1.4 cm wide, markedly thickened with spongy material adjacent to body, rounded to somewhat angled laterally, sometimes 1-2 extra narrower wings on more convex side of body; body 0.6-0.9 cm wide but appearing wider due to thickened base of wings, often slightly ridged on 1 face and slightly grooved on other. Reproductive biology. Flowers white, greenish white, green with yellow stamens, cream-colored, or yellow, sweetly scented, much visited by indigenous bees (Bahia); no evidence of dichogamy. Specimens from Tocantins often have beautiful white-tomentose flowers, but in other material the pubescence varies from fulvous to rufous. Flowering and fruiting August to March. The corky fruits are presumably suited to water dispersal.

  • Discussion

    Illustrations. Figs. 3a (venation), 74d (fr), 79a (If). Griffiths (1959), p. 859 (as T. scutifera)-, Mar-quete Ferreira da Silva & Valente (1996), fr, p. 40.

    Terminalia lucida and T. dichotoma are easily distinguished from all other species by their shield-like fruits whose wings have a thick spongy proximal zone, but less obviously so when not in fruit. Terminalia hayesii was placed as a synonym of T. amazonia by Exell (1958), but the leaf venation and pubescent style show this to be wrong. Terminalia nyssifolia differs in no important respects from T. lucida. Terminalia lucida differs from T. dichotoma in the more coriaceous, more shortly acuminate and smaller leaves, much more regular and closer higher-order leaf-venation (especially areolation), shorter and eglandular petiole, more densely pubescent inflorescence and ovaries, and shorter fruits with wider and thinner wings. Terminalia scutifera, from West Africa (limited to Guinea Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone), was said by Griffiths (1959) to be “extremely closely related” to T. nyssifolia. In fact we cannot distinguish the two; T. scutifera also has the distinctive spongy proximal zone to the fruits, which is unique among African species. It should not have been placed in the same section, Bialatae Engl. & Diels, as T. superba Engl. & Diels; the latter has fruits very like those of species of section Diptera, but differs in its elongated inflorescences, putting it closer to section Oblongae. The only characters listed for T. scutifera by Griffiths that are not covered by the above description of T. lucida are: leaves 8.5-18.5 × 3.2-7.8 cm, densely rufous-tomentose when very young; inflorescences 4.5-8 cm; peduncles 2.5-3 cm. However, the rufous tomentum is present only when the leaves are just emerging, and is equally well developed in American material.

    Although very distinct from species of other sections at fruiting, the densely pubescent flowering inflorescences of Terminalia lucida can be confused with those of some other species, especially with T. mameluco in eastern Brazil. They differ in the disk, which is strongly lobed and densely pilose in T. lucida but scarcely lobed and sparsely pubescent in T. mameluco, and in the young developing leaves which are more acuminate in the latter.

    Distribution and Ecology: (Fig. 77). Inundated lowland forests, riversides, river deltas and beaches, usually on sandy soils, often in a zone behind the mangroves just above high-water level, from sea level to 150 m. Guatemala to Panama, and in eastern South America from Colombia to Bahia, Brazil, at or near the coast except in eastern Brazil where it extends to ca. 1200 km inland along Rios Tocantins, Parana, and Araguaia in Tocantins. Marquete Ferreira da Silva and Valente (1996) also record it in Goiás. There are also outliers in São Paulo and western Matto Grosso. It has a very restricted distribution in West Africa

  • Common Names

    Yaksu, fukadi, pau d’água, mijol, Cinzeiro, quinarana, miringiba, cambui

  • Distribution

    Pará Brazil South America| São Paulo Brazil South America| Tocantins Brazil South America| Maranhão Brazil South America| Mato Grosso Brazil South America| Bahia Brazil South America| Piauí Brazil South America| Ceará Brazil South America| Colón Panamá Central America| Izabal Guatemala Central America| Gracias a Dios Honduras Central America| Zelaya Nicaragua Central America| Cayenne French Guiana South America| Inini French Guiana South America| Essequibo Guyana South America| Marowijne Suriname South America| Delta Amacuro Venezuela South America| Antioquia Colombia South America| French Guiana South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America|