Dichapetalum pedunculatum
Description
Liana; young branches tomentellous to glabrous. Stipules persistent, linear, to 10 mm long, puberulous to tomentellous, margin entire. Petiole 4-12 mm long, shortly tomentellous at least when young; blade coriaceous, ovate-elliptic to oblong, 5-16 x 2-7.5 cm, acuminate at apex, subcordate to subcuneate and slightly unequal at base, plane not bullate above, glabrous or with a few stiff hairs on venation only beneath; midrib more or less plane above, pubescent to glabrous, 7-9 pairs of secondary veins, more or less plane above, venation plane above. Inflorescence a spreading panicle, usually petiolar, sometimes terminal; rachis and branches tomentellous to glabrescent; peduncle 1-3.5 cm long. Flowers hermaphrodite; pedicel 0.2-1.5 mm long; bracts and bracteoles lanceolate, 0.5-2 mm long, persistent, tomentose; calyx 1.5-2 mm long, tomentose on exterior, lobes almost equal; petals of 5 equal lobes, deeply bifid, yellow or white, glabrous; fertile stamens 5, alternating and equalling or shorter than petal lobes; disk of 5 large glands with lobed apices; ovary lanate on exterior, styles lanate at base, glabrous at apex, divided into 2 or 3, or united with a 3-fid apexFruit ellipsoid, most frequently 1-locular, but often 2-locular, epicarp short-tomentellous, mesocarp thin, endocarp thin, hard, bony, glabrous within.
Distribution
Guianas present, Trinidad present, northern Venezuela present, western part of Brazilian Amazonia present
From Trinidad and northern Venezuela through the Guianas to the western part of Brazilian Amazonia; many collections studied (GU: 43; SU: 14; FG: 23).
Notes
De Candolle, in his original description of Chailletia pedunculata, did not give any details about this type specimen except to say that it was from Cayenne. Baillon in 'Flora Brasiliensis' cited one of the Paris sheets as the type: Herb. Olyssip s.n., from Pará, Brazil. This sheet came from the herbarium Lusitania in Lisboa, and was presumably collected by A.R. Ferreira in Brazil between 1783 and 1792. It could have been at Paris prior to De Candolle's description of C. pedunculata , and was possibly seen by him. However, it disagrees with de Candolle's description in two features, firstly in the locality, Brazil not Cayenne, and secondly in the mature flowers. De Candolle was unable to describe mature flowers of C. pedunculata , yet the Herb. Olyssip material has many open flowers. Baillon was certainly incorrect in his designation of the type collection of D. pedunculatum . De Candolle in the 'Prodromus' gave a synoptic description of D. pedunculatum which included the citation of a single collection by Patris. Thus the type is certainly the Patris collection. The De Candolle herbarium at Geneva has three sheets of D. pedunculatum all without field notes or collectors' names. One of these sheets is, however, marked Cayenne. This is almost certainly the type collection, and at least one of the three sheets in the De Candolle herbarium, possibly all three, is the Patris collection.