Parinari

• Authority

  Prance, Ghillean T. 1972. Chrysobalanaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 9: 1-410. (Published by NYBG Press)

• Family

  Chrysobalanaceae

• Scientific Name

  Parinari

• Type

  Type species. Parinari campestris Aublet. The name Parinari is derived from the vernacular name in French Guiana.

• Synonyms

  Parinarium Juss., Dugortia Scop., Petrocarya Schreb., Balantium Kaulf., Lepidocarpa Korth., Ferolia Aubl., Parinari campestris Aubl.

• Description

  Description - Small to large trees or shrubs, occasionally suffrutices. Flowers hermaphrodite 4.0-7.0(-11.0) mm long. Leaves entire, glabrous above with stomatal cavities filled with lanate pubescence on lower surface (except in a few Asiatic species). Petioles usually with two sessile glands. Bracts and bracteoles eglandular, usually enclosing young flowers in small groups. Inflorescences much branched panicles. Receptacle turbinate to campanulate, slightly swollen at one side, hollow, pubescent throughout within, tomentose on exterior. Calyx lobes 5, acute. Petals 5. Stamens 6-8; filaments not exceeding the calyx lobes, unilateral with staminodes inserted opposite them. Ovary inserted laterally at the mouth of the receptacle, the carpels bilocular. Style filiform, not exceeding the calyx lobes. Fruit a fleshy drupe with a verrucose epicarp; mesocarp fleshy and often fibrous; endocarp hard, thick, and with a rough fibrous surface which may be channelled, with two basal plugs or stoppers the detachment of which allows the seedling to escape. Germination hypogeal, the first leaves alternate.

• Discussion

  In my synopsis (Prance in press) the circumscription of Parinari was considerably altered. However, this redefinition of the genus makes little change to the New World representatives, except for the segregation of P. barbata, P. cordata, P. coriacea, P. gardneri, and P. gracile into the new genus Exellodendron.

  Most genera in the Chrysobalanaceae contain groups of closely related species, but the greater number of species in each genus are well defined or taxonomically isolated. This is not the case in Parinari, where it is almost true to say that the whole genus is one large species complex distributed around the tropics. There are a few very distinct species (eg P. congolana in Africa, P. canarioides in Asia, and P. campestris and P. montana in America). The majority of species are, however, so closely related that they can be separated only by differential characters and a few weak diagnostic ones. These species are usually geographically and ecologically distinct from one another. This has been discussed elsewhere (Prance, in press).

• Distribution

  Pan-tropical, in the American tropics from Colombia through the Guianas, Amazon basin to southern Brazil and Bolivia; also in Trinidad.