Minquartia guianensis

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Minquartia guianensis

Description

Small to large tree, (2-)10-20(-30) m tall; bole straight, angular, with rather deep, 0.5-2 m long grooves, older ones sometimes perforated, to 1.4 m diam.; bark brownish-gray, with small oblong scales and vertical, straight cracks closely together, showing white latex when cut; sapwood yellow, hard. Branches angular, glabrous; branchlets as all young parts usually more or less densely grayish-, or mostly rusty-puberulent with branched hairs. Petioles broadly channeled, (5-) 20-30(-40) x 1-2(-3) mm; blades chartaceous to coriaceous, oblong to elliptic, sometimes lanceolate, (6-)10-16(-35) x (2.5-)4-6(-13) cm, apex abruptly short-acuminate, tip acute or bluntish, base obtuse to rounded-truncate, grayish-olivaceous when dry, glabrous, shiny and often slightly tuberculate above, dull and often puberulous especially on the veins beneath, primary vein prominent on both surfaces, secondary veins (6-)10-14(-17) pairs, rather straight-ascending and subparallel, curved before the margin, slightly impressed above, prominent beneath, tertiary veins transverse, closely subparallel. Spikes solitary in the upper axils, simple, or rarely few-branched, shortly pedunculate, rusty-tomentellous in all outer parts, 2-6(-9) cm long. Flowers cream, scented, 2-5 per fascicle. Calyx obscurely 5(-6)-dentate, laxly set with dark glands, ca. 1 mm long; petals connate into a campanulate tube for 1-1.5 mm, free lobes with subacut apexe, inner side with long erect hairs, 1-1.5 mm long; stamens inserted just below the orifice, filaments glabrous; ovary subglobose. Drupe ellipsoid, rarely subovoid, yellowish-reddish initially, becoming purplish-black at full maturity, 2-2.5(-3) x 1.5(-2) cm, on peduncle 2-3 mm long.

Distribution

Amazonian Colombia present, Guianas present present present, Southern America: Bolivia (Bolivia present); Costa Rica (Costa Rica present); Ecuador (Ecuador present); Nicaragua (Nicaragua present); Panamá (Panamá present); Peru (Peru present); Venezuela (Venezuela present)
from Nicaragua to Costa Rica and Panama, in the Guianas, Amazonian Colombia.Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil; locally common in the Guianas. Over 150 specimens studied, 65 from the Guianas (GU: 5; SU: 20; FG: 40).

Common Name

Creole (French Guiana): maka, mekwa; Creole (Guyana): manwood; English (French Guiana): bagui-bagui, minquar, pai'coussa rouge; English (Guyana): alata-oedoe, arataweri, mincoa, wanania, yuwartu

Uses

The grayish-brownish wood is hard, heavy, and extremely durable, used mainly for poles.