Pseudima frutescens
Description
Unbranched shrubs or small trees 3-10 (15) m tall; bark light brown, smooth. Upper portion of stem furrowed to terete, with hollow pith (sometimes housing ants). Leaves even-pinnate, (simple and elongated in juvenile plants); petiole plus rachis 8-75 cm long; leaflets 10-20, alternate, chartaceous, glabrous, abaxially minutely papillate, oblong, lanceolate, elliptic or oblanceolate, 5-22(30) × 3-6.5(7.3) cm, the base acute to obtuse, the apex acuminate, the margins entire or crenulate. Thyrses panicle-shaped, 30-45 cm long, densely flowered; flowers in compound, pedunculate dichasia. Calyx greenish to light yellow, sericeous-tomentose, the sepals ovate, rounded at apex, ca. 3 mm long; petals yellowish, rhombate, ca. 3.3 mm long. sericeous-tomentose; disc cup-shaped, ca. 1 mm tall, glabrous or puberulent; filaments pubescent. Capsules red, glabrous, stipitate, of twosubglobose cocci, one of which is usually smaller or rudimentary, pericarp 1.5-2 mm thick, cocci 1.5-2 cm long, splitting in half along the dorsal suture. Seeds nearly globose to obovoid, black, foveate, ca. 1.7 cm long, with a white, papery arillode on lower third.
Distribution
Guianas present, Southern America: Bolivia (Bolivia present); Costa Rica (Costa Rica present); Panamá (Panamá present); Peru (Peru present)
Known from Costa Rica, Panama, the Guianas, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil (GU: 4; SU: 5; FG: 9).
Common Name
English (French Guiana): gaulette indien, quenette sauvage, tintin couman; English (Suriname): bete, bosknipa, pah-ke-rah-a-nu
Stem morphology
Upper portion of stem furrowed to , with hollow pith (sometimes housing ants).1
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