Virola calophylla Warb.
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Authority
Smith, Albert C. & Wodehouse, R. P. 1938. The American species of Myristicaceae. Brittonia. 2: 393-527. f. 1-9.
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Family
Myristicaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Tree 4-20 m. high; branchlets robust, often rugose, densely puberulent (hairs minutely sessile-stellate), glabrescent; petioles stout, deeply canaliculate, 3-5 mm. in diameter, 7-20 mm. long, often rugose, puberulent as the branchlets, glabrescent; leaf blades coriaceous, oblong, ovate-oblong, or elliptic-oblong, 20-55 cm. long, 7-24 cm. broad, deeply cordate to truncate and occasionally broadly obtuse at base, acuminate or cuspidate at apex, shining above, uniformly and densely but inconspicuously puberulent beneath (hairs sessile-stellate, 5-7-branched, about 0.1 mm. in diameter), sometimes sparsely punctate beneath, the costa prominent on both surfaces, very strong belleath, the secondary nerves 12-27 per side, curved near margins, usually slightly raised above, prominent beneath, the veinlets obscure or slightly impressed; staminate inflorescences broadly paniculate, freely branching, manyflowered, 12-30 cm. long, 8-18 cm. broad, the peduncle up to 7 cm. long, with the branchlets and flowers minutely and densely tomentellous (hairs sessile-stellate, 6-8-branched, less than 0.1 mm. in diameter), ebracteate; flowers loosely arranged in ultimate clusters of 4-10, the pedicels slender, 1-2 mm. long; perianth thin carnose, infundibuliform, 1.3-2 mm. long, 3-cleft about one-third its length, the lobes obtuse; androecium 1-1.7 mm. long, the filament column thick carnose, abruptly
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Discussion
Myristica calophylla Spruce, Jour. Linn. Soc. 5: 4, nomen. 1860.
Virota incotor Warb. Nova Acta Acad. Leop.-Carol. 68: 232. 1897.
Otoba incolor Karst.; Warb. Nova Acta. Acad. Leop-Carol. 68: 232, as synonym. 1897.
Type locality: Rio Cassiquiare region, Amazonas, Venezuela.
Native name: Peru: Cumala blanca (ex Williams).
V. calophylla is one of the most attractive species of the genus, with extremely large leaves with well-spaced secondary nerves. The staminate inflorescences are abundant and ample. The species is readily recognized by its leaves, its pubescence, and its sharply narrowed filament column. V. incolor was described from a sterile collection from the base of the Colombian Andes. The leaves have nearly the same form as some specimens of V. calophylla. In texture the leaves of V. incolor are more membranous, but I believe they represent a juvenile plant which cannot be maintained as a species.
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Distribution
Amazonian Brazil and adjacent Venezuela, Colombia,
Brazil South America| Venezuela South America| Colombia South America|