Virola surinamensis (Rol. ex Rottb.) 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 up to 25 m. high, the trunk up to 80 cm. in diameter, the branches spreading, conspicuously whorled; branchlets often flexuose, tomentellous (hairs branched from base, up to 1 mm. long) or puberulent, at length glabrescent; petioles deeply canaliculate, tomentellous or glabrous, 1.5-2 mm. in diameter, 2-9 mm. long; leaf blades coriaceous, narrowly oblong, parallel-margined, 10-22 cm. long (sometimes shorter on flowering branchlets), 2-5 cm. broad (sometimes up to 35 by 6 cm.), subcordate, rounded, obtuse or acute at base, cuspidate, acute or short acuminate at apex, pale puberulent beneath (hairs sessilestellate, 5-8-branched, 0.1-0.25 mm. in diameter), the costa plane or shallowly grooved above, prominent beneath, the secondary nerves 16- 30 per side, plane or slightly impressed above, sharply raised beneath, the veinlets obscure or slightly impressed on both surfaces; staminate inflorescences broadly paniculate, many-flowered, freely branching, 7-17 cm. long and nearly as broad, the peduncle often slightly flattened, up to 4.5 cm. long, with the branchlets and flowers golden- or cinereous puberulent (hairs sessile-stellate, few-branched, about 0.2 mm. in diameter), the ultimate peduncles distally swollen; bracts oblong, puberulent, 3-8 mm. long, conspicuous in young inflorescences, at length deciduous; flowers arranged in ultimate clusters of 5-20, the pedicels slender, up to 4 mm. long; perianth thin carnose or submembranous, 1.6-2.4 mm. long, 3-lobed nearly to base, the lobes oblong, obtuse, often sparsely pellucid-punctate and sometimes with distinct veins; androecium 1.3-1.9 mm. long, the filament column slender, 0.8- 1.3 mm. long, the anthers 3, 0.5-0.8 mm. long, connate to apex, obtuse; pistillate inflorescences 2-8 cm. long at anthesis, the flowers 3-6 per cluster, the pedicels up to 2 mm. long, the bracts as in the staminate inflorescences; ovary subglobose, closely and densely puberulent, the style stout, less than 0.5 mm. long, the stigma flaring, deeply cleft;
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Discussion
Myristica surinamensis Rol.; Rottb. Acta Lit. Univ. Hafn. 1: 281. 1778.
Myristica fatua Sw. Prodr. 96. 1788; non Houtt
Myristica angustifolia Lam. MWm. Acad. Paris 164. 1788.
Myristica sebifera var. longifolia Lam. Eneyc. 4: 390. 1796.
Virola Mycetis Pulle, Rec. Trav. Bot. NMerl. 4: 125, in part. 1907.
Type locality: Surinam. Type collected by Rolander.
Native names: Guadeloupe: Muscadier fou. Grenada and Trinidad: Wild nuttmeg. Trinidad: Cajuca. British Guiana: Dalli, Dalliba, White Dalli. Surinam: see van Ooststroom (13: 121). Brazil: Ucuuba or Ucuuba branca.
This species is valued for the wax or oil produted by its fruits, considerable quantities of which are used in Para or exported from there. The species is especially abundant on the islands of the Amazon estuary, where the fruits are readily collected from the surface of the water in inundable regions. Warburg (16: 213-217) has discussed the uses and composition of the seeds.
The species appears never to be found very far inland, although it follows large rivers some distance from the coast. The specimens which Ducke (6: 258) mentions from southern Venezuela and Amazonas (Brazil) I believe are best referred to V. carinata
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Distribution
Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe to Grenada), Tobago,
West Indies|