Genipa americana L. var. americana

  • Authority

    Maguire, Bassett. 1972. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part IX. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 23: 1-832.

  • Family

    Rubiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Genipa americana L. var. americana

  • Description

    Distribution and Ecology - Distribution. West Indies (Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Grenadines, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, St. Vincents, Cuba, Dominican Republic), Central America (British Honduras, Panama), and South America (Guianas south to Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru). WEST INDIES. Hayti: vicinity of Plaisance, Dept, du Nord, Leonard 9229; Vallee des Trois Rivieres, a Port-de-Paix, Petit-Fond, Ekman 4325; Plaine Centrale, St. Michel Pal, Ekman 8389. Martinique: Riviere Salée-Ducos, Duss 991 C. Guadeloupe: base du Marne Houëlmont, Duss 2759. Grenadines: Isle of Ronde, Howard 10754; High North, Casriacon, P. Beard 1212. St. Thomas: Hornbeck s n. St. Vincents: H. H. & G. W. Smith 632. Puerto Rico: Rio Abajo, Gregory 49; near Coamo, Britton & Britton 9852, 10103; Sierra de Naguabo, Río Icaco, Shafer 3507; N slope Luquillo Mts., Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Heller 741; Vieques Island, Martineau, Shafer 3035. Cuba: Trinidad Mountains, Santa Clara, Siguanea, Britton & Wilson 4972. Dominican Republic: vicinity of Higüey, Prov. Seibo, Howard 9776. CENTRAL AMERICA. British Honduras: Stann Creek Valley, Baboon Ridge, Gentle 3133. Panama: Chanquunola Valley, Cooper & Slater 80; Dept. Chiriqui, Cooper & Slater 258; Marraganti, R. S. Williams 658. TRINIDAD. Teteron Bay, Britton 480; Look Out Hill, Government House Grounds, Broadway 2617. FRENCH GUIANA. vicinity of Cayenne, Broadway 479. SURINAME. Wayombo, Wood Herbarium 379; ad ripas fluv. Marowijne, along beach N of Galibi, Lanjouw & Lindeman 1043; Berthoud-Coulon 171. VENEZUELA. Terr. Delta Amacuro: este de Rio Grande, este-noreste de El Palmar, cerca de los limites del Estado Bolivar, Marcano Berti 158. Anzoategui: bosque de Mata Negra, cabeceras del Río Guanipa, Pittier 14890. Cojedes: San Carlos, Velez 2772. Carabobo: Nagua-Nagua, Williams 15357. Yaracuy: de Yumare hacia Palmasola, Km 26, pica no. 1 de la Colonia del IAN, Bernardi 6996. Merida: paraje de Cano Zancudo, carretera Panamericana, Bernardi 2176. Zulia: Reserva Forestal San Camilo, 7 km al este de la Ceiba, 16 km al este del Jordan (viejo), Steyermark, Bunting & Blanco 101921. Trujillo: carretera de Escuque a Valera, Pittier 13156. Lara: near Santa Rosa, Alston 6339. COLOMBIA. Int. Choco: Rio Pato, affluent of Rio Quito, Archer 2111. Magdalena: Santa Marta, H. H. Smith 2646. El Valle del Cauca: La Paila, Holton 441; Cordillera Central, western slope SE of Palmira, along road to La Buitrera, padway to Quebrada de Aguaclara, Cuatrecasas & Willard 26586; El Pedregal, near Florida, Core 1649. Boyaca: El Umbo region, of Mt. Chapon, Lawrance 460. BRAZIL. Maranhão: Island of São Luiz, Froes 11720. Pernambuco: Shuttleworth 1042. Bahia: Blanchet 1023; Prov. Jacobina, Blanchet 3535; Ilheos, Riedel 610; Bahia de Todos Santos, 1832, Blanchet (type collection of Genipa barbata Presl). Espirito Santo: Rio Doce, Collantina, Whitford & Silveira 52. Mato Grosso: 50 km N of Chavantina, Rio Vau, Serra do Roncador, Prance & Silva 59338; 75 km S of Xavantina, upper Rio Araguaia, Irwin, Souza, Grear & dos Santos 17197; Angustura, source of the Jatuaraha River, Machado River region, Krukoff 1552. Minas Gerais: Claussen s n; Claussen 529, 531, 683 in part; Cidade de Uberava, Regnell 77. Amazonas: basin of Rio Jurua, mouth of Rio Embira (tributary of Rio Tarauaca), lat 7° 30' S, long 70° 15' W, Krukoff 5044. Without locality: Glaziou 8743, 12760; Salzmann 1831; Newman s n; Burchell 9551; Gardner 1042. BOLIVIA. San Buena Ventura, R. S. Williams 543; Huachi, head of Beni River, White 976; Yapacani, Kuntze s n; junction of rivers Beni and Madre de Dios, Rusby 1899. ECUADOR. Prov. Napa-Pastaza: basin of Río Pastaza, Pacayacu-Sarayacu region, Río Bobonaza and tributaries, Gill 55. PERU. San Martin: San Pampahermosa, Ruiz & Pavon (type of Genipa oblongifolia R. & P.; Roque, Williams 7379. Loreto: Middle Ucayali, Yarina Cocha, Tessmann 3220; mouth of Río Santiago, Tessmann 4334; Iquitos, above Río Itaya, Asplund 14623; Mishuyacu, near Iquitos, Klug 690; Maucallacta, Río Paranapura, Klug 3926; Lower Río Huallaga, Williams 4830, 4998; Lower Río Nanay, Williams 607; along Río Itaya, Williams 142; La Victoria on the Amazon River, Williams 2932; Manfinfa on the Upper Río Nanay, Williams 1096; Caballo-Cocha on the Amazon River, Williams 2147. Without locality: Soukup 933. Cajamarca: Mandanguia, Woytkowski 6827. Junin: La Merced prope Chanchamayo, prov. Tarma, Weberbauer 1901 (type collection of Genipa excelsa Krause, fragment at F). PARAGUAY. Cordillera de Altos, Hassler 3651.

  • Discussion

    Genipa oblongifolia R. & P., Fl. Peruv. 2: 67. pl. 220, fig. a. 1798.

    Gardenia genipa Sw., Prodr. 51. 1788; Obs. Bot. 84. 1791.

    Genipa grandifolia Pers., Syn. 1: 198. 1805.

    Genipa humilis Vell., Fl. Flum. 2. pl. 142. 1825.

    Genipa barbata Presl, Symb. Bot. 2: 13. pl. 60. 1832.

    Genipa excelsa Krause, in Engler Bot. Jahrb. 40: 327. 1908.

    Type. Rio San Francisco and Rio Mboacia, Minas Gerais, Brazil, teste Jorge Marc grave (Hist. Nat. Bras. 92. 1642), but Urban interprets the type locality as Haiti or Martinique, based on pl. 136 of Plumier, Icon. ed. Burm. 1757.

    Typification of the Linnaean species of Genipa americana must be interpreted on the basis of pre-Linnaean references. Urban (Fedde Rep. Beih. 5: 67. 1920) places the type locality in Hayti or Martinque on the basis of Plumier’s leones pl. 136 (edit. Burmannus). On the other hand, the pre-Linnaean references refer mainly to Brazilian collections as the earliest localities, and the evidence for this is strongly supported. The most frequent reference is made to Jorge Marcgrave’s Historia Natural do Brasil (p. 92). Here Marcgrave states that the Janipaba or Jenipapo (source of the name Genipa) is found wild in Brazil on the Rio San Francisco and Rio Mboacica (in the present state of Minas Gerais) and that the leaves shaped like a “lingua de boi” are shining and light green above, dark green and not shining below, and measure “uma pe ou pe’e meio de comprido.” Plumier (Pl. Am. Fasc. Pr. 1: 127. 1757) likewise refers to Marcgrave. Other pre-Linnaean references to Brazil as the source of the plant under consideration include the following: Plukenet (Alm. Bot. Mant. 99. 1700); Linnaeus (Hortus Cliffort. 76. 1737) with reference to “Crescit praesertim in Brasilia”; Bauhin (Hist. Pl. 1, liber III, cap. V: 253. 1650) refers to its Brazilian derivation and to the change from the Brazilian name of Junipappeiyuva to Genipat, as previously indicated by Clusius (Exot. Lib. 1, Cap. 10: 10. 1605). These early references, combined with the fact that all the earlier Brazilian collections examined up to 1840 (including those of Gardner, Blanchet, and Claussen) were obtained from the states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, and Pernambuco, would point to eastern and southeastern Brazil for the type locality of Genipa americana. These eastern and southeastern Brazilian collections of the earliest Brazilian collectors in those localities show the leaves with a mainly glabrous lower midrib, lateral nerves, and surface, sericeous interior of the calyx tube, and a conspicuously hirsute pubescence on the interior of the corolla tube and base of corolla lobes.

    Genipa oblongifolia R. & P., described from material collected from Pampahermosa, is represented in the herbarium of F by a fragment from the type at MA of a single leaf. The lower surface of this leaf is glabrous, while the midrib and lateral nerves are sparsely to moderately strigillose, conforming more or less to the original description of Ruiz & Pavon to the leaves as “leviter pubescentibus” on the “nervo et venis transversalibus.” A specimen from the Boissier Herbarium at G, identified as G. oblongifolia, and collected from Peru (Palo Colorado de Chicoplaya no. 394), shows a similar type of leaf with the surface below glabrous, but the midrib and lateral nerves sparsely to moderately appressed-strigillose. The calyx tube interior of this specimen is densely sericeous. Other material examined from Peru, as cited above, likewise shows the calyx tube interior densely sericeous and the midrib and/or lateral nerves of the lower side of the leaves with a slight pubescence of short ascend-ing or longer spreading pilose hairs. I can find no real differences between the Peruvian material of Genipa oblongifolia and material from southeastern and eastern Brazil referred to G. americana. The locality of Pampahermosa of Ruiz and Pavon is indicated on modern maps as in the Department of Loreto, Municipio Ucuyali, along the Río Ucuyali. From near this locality and others in the Department of Loreto has been collected adequate material showing variation in the glabrity and pubescence of the lower midrib and nerves. Some of the specimens from southern Brazil show some lower midribs and nerves pubescent as in G. oblongijolia. There are transitional specimens which are difficult to place, with variation present between extremes of completely glabrous lower midribs and lateral nerves to pubescent midribs and/or nerves, the surface itself remaining glabrous. It has seemed best, therefore, to combine the G. oblongijolia variation with the completely glabrous type, placing them both under the “leaves glabrous” category, used by authors to describe the leaves of G. americana. In both the West Indies as well as in southern, eastern, and southeastern Brazil, this variation of glabrity and pubescence of the lower midrib and lateral nerves, combined with a glabrous lower surface, is manifest. Therefore, whether one interprets the type locality of G. americana as Hayti or Martinique on the one hand, or southeastern or eastern Brazil on the other hand, the same type of variation is encountered. By combining G. oblongijolia and G. americana, there is eliminated any possible future difficulty in the interpretation of G. americana as a taxon having the lower surface of the leaf blades glabrous but with midrib and lateral nerves glabrous to pubescent, leaving only the extremely pubescent-leaved variation of G. caruto H.B.K. to be separated.

    Both G. barbata Presl and G. excelsa Krause must be considered conspecific with G. americana var americana. In G. barbata the isotype at NY shows the lower leaf surface glabrous. In G. excelsa the lower surface of the leaf blades is glabrous, but there is appressed pubescence on the lateral nerves, and like G. barbata, the interior of the calyx tube is densely sericeous.

  • Distribution

    Distribution. West Indies (Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Grenadines, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, St. Vincents, Cuba, Dominican Republic), Central America (British Honduras, Panama), and South America (Guianas south to Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru).

    West Indies| Haiti South America| Martinique South America| Guadeloupe South America| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines South America| Puerto Rico South America| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines South America| Cuba South America| Dominican Republic South America| Honduras Central America| Panama Central America| Guyana South America| Brazil South America| Paraguay South America| Bolivia South America| Brazil South America|