Rhabdodendron amazonicum

Primary tabs

Rhabdodendron amazonicum

Description

Tree up to 15 m, usually smaller, 20 cm diam.; stem with thin hard bark, wood with anomalous secondary phloem; young branches with scattered peltate hairs. Stipules absent. Petiole 1.5-3.5 cm long, with scattered peltate hairs, not winged, terete; blade coriaceous, oblanceolate, oblong to oblong-obovate, 2-39 x 3-10 cm, apex acute, acuminate or mucronate, most frequently with acumen 2-9 mm long, gradually narrowed to cuneate base, glabrous above, with few scattered peltate hairs beneath, not rugose on surfaces; midvein plane to prominulous above, prominulous beneath, secondary veins 30-45 pairs, plane to prominulous above, prominulous beneath, anastomosing but not forming conspicuous marginal vein. Inflorescence supra-axillary and sometimes terminal panicles or occasionally reduced to racemes, 9-17 cm long, sparsely peltate pubescent becoming glabrous with age; bracts and bracteoles ovate to lanceolate, 1-2 mm long, persistent, chartaceous; pedicels 6-15 mm long, glabrescent, frequently recurved, often with 2lanceolate bracteoles; calyx-tube turbinate-campanulate, 2-4 mm long, exterior glabrescent, lobes small but distinct and apparent in young flowers only; petals 5, oblong, 7-8 mm long, sepaloid, minutely punctate; stamens ca. 45, anthers ca. 7 mm long; stigmatic surface long and linear. Fruit subglobose, 6-10 mm diam., exocarp glabrous, smooth but wrinkled when dry, mesocarp very thin, fleshy, endocarp thin, bony, fragile, with median line of fracture, glabrous within.

Distribution

Guianas present, central to eastern Amazonian Brazil present
The Guianas and central to eastern Amazonian Brazil; many collections studied (GU: 15; SU: 7; FG: 5).

Common Name

English (Guyana): mabua; English (Suriname): powisitere

Phenology

Flowering .

Notes

Lemée, () reports R. macrophyllum (Spruce ex Benth.) Huber to have been found in French Guiana. So far this species, that is close to R. amazonicum, is known only from the vicinity of Manaus, Brazil.