Guapira cuspidata
Content
Description
Tree 1-18 m, trunk to ca. 20 cm diam.; branches yellowish-brown, rugulose, glabrous; branchlets rufous-puberulent, leafy at apex. Leaves opposite; petiole rufous-puberulent, 1-2.5 cm long; blade thinly coriaceous, usually broadly ovate (sometimes lance-elliptical or ovate-elliptical), 11.5-17.3 x 4.8-6.5 cm, gradually or abruptly acuminate or attenuate to apex, which is usually cuspidate or subcuspidate, with obtuse or acute acumen, subdecurrent at base, glabrous above, densely ferrugineous-puberulent, especially on midvein and principal lateral veins beneath when young, glabrate and dull in age; lateral veins prominent, 6-9 on each side, arcuate, laxly anastomosing near plane margin. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary, densely many-flowered cyme; peduncle stout, 5-7.5 cm long; branches rufous-puberulent or -tomentellous, ascending; ultimate cymules 3-4 to many-flowered, flowers sessile or rarely pedicels 1-3 mm long; bracteoles ovate-triangular, 1 mm long, puberulent. Male perianth oblong-infundibuliform, 3-4 x 1.5-2.5 mm, rufous-puberulent, limb shortly 5-dentate, teeth triangular, obtuse; stamens 7-ca. 9, white, longer ones ca. 8 mm long, shorter ones ca. 6 mm long; rudimentary pistil ca. 3.5 mm long. Female perianth ellipsoid or infundibuliform, 2.5-3 x 1 mm, limb shortly 5-dentate, lobes erect, acute; pistil ca. 2.5-3 mm long, stigma slightly exserted, digitately lacerate-fimbriate. Anthocarp dark red, narrowly ellipsoid, ca. 8 x 3 mm, with purple juice.
Distribution
Courantyne, Cuyuni, Berbice and Rupununi rivers and tributaries present, Guianas present, Guyana present, Southern America: Venezuela (Venezuela present), Suriname present, Trinidad present
Trinidad, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname; in Guyana principally found at the edge of forests, in scrub savanna, or at the edges of white sand savanna "islands" along the Courantyne, Cuyuni, Berbice and Rupununi rivers and tributaries, in Suriname on sandy ridges with low forest, and in savanna woods bordering rock pavements; 37 collections studied, of which 21 from the Guianas (GU: 19; SU: 2).