Tontelea coriacea

Content

Description

Liana or small tree; stem grey, branchlets terete, reddish brown with numerous blackish lenticels. Petiole stout, 1.2-1.7 cm long; blades coriaceous or thin-coriaceous, more or less shiny, elliptic, 6.5-13.5(-25) x 3-7.5 cm, margins entire, thickened, revolute, apex shortly cuspidate, base acute to obtuse, often somewhat falcate; primary vein prominent on both surfaces, secondary veins 6-8, arcuately ascending, with intermediates, slightly prominulous above, prominulous beneath, tertiary veins inconspicuous. Inflorescence ceriferous, axillary, pseudo-dichotomously branched almost from the base; bracts and bracteoles ovate, less than 1 mm long; pedicels 0-1.7 mm long. Flowers 2.5-3 mm diam.; sepals ovate-deltoid, 0.5-1 mm long, entire or erosulous; petals yellowish white or green, papillose, oblong-obovate, 1.3-2.2 mm long, margins subentire or erosulous; disk thin, 0.2-0.4 mm high; stamens suberect, becoming reflexed, filaments 0.5-0.8 mm long, anthers 0.2-0.3 x 0.4-0.6 mm, dehiscing extrorsely; ovary depressed-globose to trigonous, ovules 2 per locule, superposed, style short, stigmas 3, slightly bilobed, spreading, alternating with the stamens. Fruit ellipsoid to trigonous, to 4 x 2.4 cm, pericarp rather smooth or somewhat rugulose, turning from olive- or dark-green to yellow or orange; seeds ellipsoid or irregularly shaped, pale brown.

Distribution

Guianas present present, Southern America: Brazil North (Amapá present); Peru (Peru present); Venezuela (Venezuela present)

Venezuela, the Guianas, Peru and Brazil (Amapa); 15 collections studied, 14 from the Guianas (GU: 6; SU: 2; FG: 6).

Phenology

Flowering ; fruiting in .

Notes

The collection Guyana, Kanasenay, Guppy 306 (= FD 7283) (NY) may belong here, too.
A sterile Suriname collection Heyde 639, a liana collected in forest along Raleigh Falls, Suriname, has some resemblance to T. coriacea, but could also belong to Tontelea mauritioides (A.C. Smith) A.C. Smith. It has coriaceous, 21 x 10 cm large leaves, with numerous, closely spaced, minute, white dots at the leaf undersurface, charac- teristics of T. mauritioides, known from Rio Madeira Basin, Matta Grosso, Brazil, from Beni, Bolivia and from Est. Bolivar, Venezuela.