Tabernaemontana unguiculata Rusby

  • Authority

    Rusby, Henry H. 1927. Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Plants Collected on the Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Valley 1921-1922. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 7: 205-387.

  • Family

    Apocynaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Tabernaemontana unguiculata Rusby

  • Description

    Species Description - Finely tomentellate. Branchlets short, rather stout, roughened with the prominent leaf-scars and interpetiolar lines, leafy at the ends. Petioles 1 cm. or less long, slender, abruptly dilated at the base. Blades to 1 dm. long and a third to a half as wide, oblanceolate, gradually tapering into the petiole, abruptly acuminate and acute at the summit, entire, very thin, deep-green and nearly glabrous above, gray-tomentellate beneath, the midrib finely channeled above, prominent beneath, the secondaries about 12 on each side, widely spreading and strongly falcate toward the ends, the finer venation obscure. Cymes in the upper axils, few-flowered, short-peduncled. Bractlets 1 to 2 mm. long, ovate, acute, closely appressed. Pedicels about 5 mm. long, slightly angled upward. Calyx deeply parted, the tube turbinate, the lobes about 2 mm. long, ovate, obtusish, the prominent midrib green, the margins whitish. Corolla-tube 15 mm. long, very slender, narrowed upward, the limb nearly 2 cm. broad, 5-parted, the lobes broadly ovate, with narrow, lightly keeled base, the margin crispate. Glands of the calyx small. Disk not seen. Ovaries widely separated and filiform, the styles separate for some distance at the base, the entire pistil about 5 mm. long. Stigma relatively large, annulate. Stamens not seen. Immature follicle two thirds as long as broad, oval, obtuse and nearly elliptic, thick, densely short-tuberculate. Apparently only one follicle develops.

  • Distribution

    Huachi, 3,000 feet, 0. E. White, August 21, 1921 (no. 461). "A tree, 15 feet high, in forest shade, the flowers white and fragrant." Also collected on the Iniquia Kiver, 2,500 feet, H. H. Rusby, September 21, 1921 (no. 753). Species near T. crispiflora K. Schum.

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