Batocarpus

Primary tabs

Batocarpus

Description

Trees, dioecious. Leaves alternate and distichous; stipules lateral, free; blade entire, pinnately veined. Inflorescences in the leaf axils, pedunculate, with bracts. Staminate inflorescences spicate; tepals 3-5, free; stamens 1 or 2; pistillode absent. Pistillate inflorescences globose-capitate; perianth tubular, subentire to 4-lobed; ovary free, stigmas 2, subulate. Fruiting perianth enlarged, fleshy, greenish; fruit free; seed large, without endosperm, cotyledons thick and equal.

Distribution

Guianas present, Neotropics present
Neotropics 3 species; the Guianas 1 species.

Wood

Vessels diffuse, solitary (50-65%) and in short radial multiples and irregular clusters of 2-4, round to oval, 2-3 per sq. mm, diameter 200-205 μm. Vessel-member length: 405-425 μm. Perforations simple. Inter- vascular pits alternate, round or polygonal, 8-10 μm. Vessel-ray and vessel-parenchyma pits larger, elongated and irregular, half-bordered, the borders in part reduced. Thin-walled tyloses occasionally present in some samples, always few. Orange deposits frequent, white deposits less common.
Rays uniseriate and 4-6-seriate, 4-6 per mm, up to 1200-1400 μm high. Heterogeneous, composed of procumbent cells except for the uniseriate margins of 1-2 rows of square and/or upright cells. Occasionally some sheath cells.
Parenchyma as irregular wavy bands, 3-10 cells wide and 2-3 bands per mm. In addition, scanty paratracheal to vasicentric-aliform parenchyma occurs. Strands of 3-4 cells.
Fibres non-septate, lumen 7-20 μm, walls 2-5 μm. Pits simple, small, restricted to the radial walls. Gelatinous fibres present. Length: 1590-1700 μm. F/V ratio: 3.9-4.0.
Vitreous silica scarcely present in vessels and/or fibres.

Notes

No material from the Guianas is available. The description is based on material from Brazil and Peru (ter Welle et al., 1986B).