Matayba guianensis
Content
Description
Shrub or small tree, 2-7 m tall (28 m fide Fanshawe 522). Stems ferruginous-tomentose, tomentulose or puberulent, becoming glabrous and lenticellate with age. Leaves paripinnate or imparipinnate; petiole plus rachis (3)12-30 cm long, slightly flattened adaxially, glabrous or puberulent; petiolules 3-6(10) mm long, widened at base, usually drying dark brown; leaflets (4)8-11, alternate, chartaceous or coriaceous, glabrous or abaxially puberulent, usually drying brown, with adaxial surface darker, elliptic, oblong-elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 5-16 × 2-6 cm, the base unequal to strongly so, the apex obtusely acuminate, acuminate or obtuse, the margins entire, crenulate, slightly revolute and circumvalate; venation usually lighter than surrounding tissue, primary and secondary veins abaxially prominent, tertiary veins reticulate. Thyrses axillary, 15-30 cm long, paniculate; axes tomentulose, slightly striate. Flowers in compound, pedunculate dichasia; pedicels ca. 1 mm long, tomentose. Calyx ferruginous-tomentose, ca. 1 mm long, the lobes triangular, ca. 0.5 mm long; petals white, spatulate, ca. 1.5 mm long, shortly clawed at base; appendages 2, sericeous-tomentose, ca. 1 mm long, marginal; disc glabrous, annular; stamens 8, 2-2.5 mm long, the filaments pubescent on lower half; ovary sericeous-tomentose, 3-locular, the style unbranched. Capsule glabrous or puberulent, green, reddish green or maroon, sessile or nearly so, trigono-globose, turbinate-globose or subglobose, 1-2 cm long; pericarp smooth, verrucose or tuberculate, sometimes exfoliating; mesocarp woody, ca. 1 mm thick; endocarp lanose. Seed dark brown, shiny, obovoid or ellipsoid, 7-9 mm long, lower half with white, thin, irregularly lobed arillode.
Distribution
Guianas present, Southern America: Bolivia (Bolivia present); Ecuador (Ecuador present); Peru (Peru present); Venezuela (Venezuela present), lowlands of Colombia present
Widespread throughout the lowlands of Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia (GU: 3; SU: 2; FG: 6).