Terminalia guaiquinimae Maguire & Exell

  • 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 guaiquinimae Maguire & Exell

  • Type

    Type. Venezuela. Bolívar: Ridges and rocky places below south-east escarpment, 1600-1700 m, Cerro Guaiquinima, Jan 1952, Maguire 33008 (holotype, NY; isotypes, BM, VEN); Maguire 33008A (not cited in protologue but possibly isotype, NY). Venezuela. Bolivar: Open savannas or border of woodland, north valley, Cerro Guaiquinima, 1600-1700 m, Jan 1952, Maguire 33056 (paratypes, BM, NY).

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub or tree 0.5-15 m, often spindly and virgate. Leaves 3.5-11 × 2.5-6.5 cm, strongly coriaceous, obovate to elliptic-oblong, rounded to retuse or sometimes obtuse at apex, acutely or obtusely cuneate to rounded or subcordate at base, often revolute at margin; domatia absent. Venation as in T. quintalata except secondly veins 4-10 pairs. Petiole 0.2-1 cm, usually biglandular at junction with leaf. Inflorescences 3.5-13 cm, simple, andromonoecious, sometimes bisexual and sometimes male flowers predominating, the male ones dispersed among the bisexuals; peduncle 2-8 cm; rhachis 0.5-5.5 cm. Flowers tetramerous (to pentamerous), the bisexual ones 5.5-8 × 3-6.5 mm, the male ones 4-7 × 4-6.5 mm; lower hypanthium 2.5-4 mm in bisexual flowers, pedicel-like and 1-3 mm in male flowers; upper hypanthium 2-4 mm, campanulate to cupuliform; calyx lobes 1-2 mm, suberect to recurved; stamens 3-6 mm; style 3-6.5 mm. Fruits numerous, disposed along whole length of rhachis (rhachis often short hence fruits aggregated near end of fruiting axis), 0.7-1 × 0.5-1.2 cm, actinomorphic, elliptic to broadly transversely elliptic in side view, obtuse to rounded or truncate at apex sometimes with very short beak, rounded to truncate at base; wings 4(-5), flexible, equal, 0.15-0.5 cm wide, rounded laterally; body 0.1-0.5 cm wide. Reproductive biology. Flowers creamish buff, pale green with greenish white filaments, reddish green with white stamens and yellow style; probably varying with age. Bisexual flowers clearly protogynous. Flowering January to May; fruiting March to May.

  • Discussion

    Illustrations. Figs. 92h (fr), 101c (If). Stace & Alwan (1998), p. 351.

    Terminalia guaiquinimae differs from its two close relatives in its mostly 4-merous flowers and fruits, from T. quintalata in its smaller leaves with often obtusely cuneate to rounded base and usually wider than long fruits, and from T. yapacana in its broader leaves and larger fruits. The type specimens of three of the four species merged into one here have glabrous or subglabrous leaves, differing markedly from the densely white-sericeous abaxial surface of those of T. steyermarkii. However, later collections of T. virgata show a range of pubescence between the above, and the latter seems better associated with T. steyermarkii than with T. guaiquinimae. The two taxa are best kept separate at present, especially as the fruits have different dimensions (although relatively little fruiting material is available), but varietal rather than specific status is the more tenable. There is apparently no distinction in ecology or distribution between the varieties.

  • Distribution

    Open scrubby savannas, rocky slopes and upland forests, sometimes along water courses, at 350-1700 m. Bolívar, Venezuela, in small area of Cerro Guaiquinima only about 50 km across, where it is sympatric with Terminalia quintalata.

    Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America|