Peritassa huanucana
Description
Liana, low shrub or small tree; branchlets slender, brown-lenticellate, minutely puberulent, glabrescent. Petiole 4-8 mm long; blades chartaceous to thin-coriaceous, brownish when dried (somewhat paler beneath), elliptic or somewhat obovate, 8-20 x 3.5-7 cm, margins entire or undulate, apex acuminate(acumen 6-16 mm long), base cuneate or obtuse; primary vein prominent on both sides, secondary veins 7-9 per side, the basal pair sharply ascending, the others more arcuately so, flattened or prominulous above, prominent or prominulous beneath, tertiary veins inconspicuous above. Inflorescence ca. 2 cm long, puberulousor papillose, dichotomously branched; peduncle ca. 0.5 cm long; bracts to 1 mm long, erosulous; pedicels ca. 1 mm long. Flowers 1.5 mm diam.; sepals deltoid, to 1.1 mm long and wide, pubescent without, ciliolate or erosulous; petals yellowish green, reflexed, slightly longer than the sepals, oblong, 1.2-2 x 0.6-0.8 mm, rounded and entire or erosulous at apex, minutely hairy; disk ca. 0.5 mm high; filaments thin, 0.6-0.8 mm long, anthers 0.3-0.4 mm long, thecae subparallel, connective not produced beyond the thecae; ovary ovoid, 0.5 mm diam., style 0.3 mm long. Infructescence to 8 cm long, glabrescent. Fruit ovoid to ellipsoid, sometimes globose, to 4.5 x 3 x 3 cm (Jacquemin 2031), pericarp 1-3 mm thick, maturing from green or whitish green to yellow or bright orange, bluish or white-pruinose when dried; seeds angled, 15 x 8 x 5 mm.
Distribution
Guianas present present, Southern America: Colombia (Colombia present); Ecuador (Ecuador present); Peru (Peru present); Venezuela (Venezuela present)
Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador and Peru; 20 collections studied, 7 from the Guianas (GU: 1; SU: 2; FG: 4).
Notes
This species can be distinguished from the related species P. pruinosa (Seem.) A.C. Smith and P. peruviana (Miers) A.C. Smith by the acuminate instead of acute leaf apex, and by the obsolete, instead of distinct tertiary veins on the upper leaf surface; the leaf base is cuneate but not decurrent into the petiole as in P. peruviana ; in P. pruinosa the base is not cuneate. The dried specimens have dark brown leaves, while in P. pruinosa they are usually greenish. P. pruinosa is distinguished by the slender peduncles.