Persea meyeniana Nees
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Authority
Kopp, Lucille E. 1966. A tasonomic revision of the genus Persea in the Western Hemisphere (Perseae-Lauraceae). Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 14: 1-117.
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Family
Lauraceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Tree to 7 m.; branchlets not strongly aromatic, angular, densely tawny-strigulose; petioles 0.8-2 cm., slightly dilated, strigulose, farinose or nonfarinose; leafblades 5-12 cm. long, 3.5-6.5 cm. wide, subcoriaceous, elliptic to obovate, the tips acute to obtuse to rounded, the bases cuneate, the upper surface glabrescent, dull, the lower surface strigulose, glaucous-farinose, the costa impressed above, prominent beneath, the 5-6 pairs of primary nerves divergent at 25-40°, impressed above, prominent beneath, the reticulation obscure above, prominulous beneath. Inflorescences axillary, paniculate, each mostly shorter than its subtending leaf; peduncles 4-5.5 cm., slender, strigulose, farinose; pedicels 5-9 mm., slender, strigulose; flowers 5-7 cm. long; outer perianth-segments 1.5 mm. long, 1.5-1.8 mm. wide, broadly ovate, tawny-strigulose without, glabous within; inner perianthsegments 5-5.2 mm. long, 2.5 mm. wide, elliptic, tawny-strigulose without, pilose within; stamens about 4.5 mm., the anthers about 2 mm., the filaments about 2.5 mm., the filaments of series I and II strigulose, the anthers ovate, sparsely strigulose, quadrilocular; filaments of series II strigulose, the glands subsessile and adnate to the basal 1/2 of the filament, the anthers oblong, quadrilocular, laterally dehiscent; staminodia of series IV sagittate; gynoecium glabrous, the ovary ellipsoid; style 1.5-2.3 mm.; stigma triangular-peltate. Infructescence with slightly thickened pedicels; perianth-segments reflexed, later abscissing from their bases; fruits 1.3-1.8 mm. long, ellipsoid, dark.
Distribution and Ecology - Distribution. West-central Chile and cultivated in California.
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Discussion
Nothaphoebe meyeniana (Nees) Baeza, Nom. Vulgar. PI. Silvestr. Chile 126. 1930.
Type collection. F. J. F. Meyen s.n., Cordillera of San Fernando, Chile, 2,400 m. March 1831 (lectotype B).
The two species, P. meyeniana and P. lingue are very closely related. The strigose pubescence, farinose waxy deposit on the leaf-blades, the seemingly relatively longer peduncles, and prominulous reticulation are the morphological criteria b) which P. meyeniana can be separated from the shorter peduncled P. lingue, in which the leaves are pilose, glaucescent, and obscurely reticulate. Though there are fewer collections of P. meyeniana than of P. lingue, the former seems to occur in regions further north and at a higher altitude than P. lingue.
Persea lingue and P. meyeniana are similar to P. conferta, but the branchlettip is not conferted; the inflorescences are strictly axillary; and the character of the fruiting perianth is reflexed and deciduous.
Meissner called attention to the similarity in venation (A small angle of divergence of the primary nerves from the costa) between P. lingue and P. chamissonis, a Mexican species. The perianth is spreading and persistent in P. chamissonis, and reflexed and deciduous in P. lingue.