Clavija

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Clavija

Description

Shrubs or small trees, unbranched or sparsely branched, evergreen. Leaves pseudoverticillate; short- to long-petiolate; blades medium-sized to large or very large, margins entire, serrulate or serrate, sometimes spinose-serrate; extraxylary sclerenchyma present or sometimes lacking. Inflorescences lateral racemes, solitary or in small groups, borne on stems among and beneath leaves, few- to many-flowered, those of female plants usually shorter than those of male plants; bracts lanceolate-ovate, inserted at junction of pedicel and rachis, rarely ascending on pedicels. Flowers 5- or sometimes 4-merous, uni- or bisexual, dioecious, gynodioecious, androdioecious, or rarely hermaphroditic; calyx greenish, lobes suborbicular, margin erose; corolla pale to dark orange, crateriform, not glandular-punctate, lobes broadly ovate-oblong or suborbicular; staminodes oblongoid to ovoid, inserted at mouth of corolla tube; stamens in non-female flowers united to a tube, in female flowers separated, filaments glabrous, anthers ovoid, obtuse-apiculate at apex; ovary in female flowers ovoid or broadly ovoid, in male or functionally male flowers narrowly ovoid to linear, ovules usually few, style shorter than to as long as ovary, stigma truncate. Fruits yellow, subglobose, pericarp thin and brittle when dried, or sometimes woody; seeds large, obtuse-angled, light to dark brown.

Distribution

Guianas present, N Paraguay present, S Brazil present, Southern America: Haiti (Haiti present); Nicaragua (Nicaragua present)
About 55 species, from Nicaragua to S Brazil and N Paraguay, 1 species in Haiti and 3 in the Guianas.

Wood

Vessels round to oval, solitary and in short radial multiples of 2-3, diffuse-porous (, ); diameter 12-40 µm; 40-100 vessels per mm². Perforations simple (). Intervascular pits alternate, 4-5 µm. Vessel-ray pits similar to intervessel pitting. Vessel member length 260-570 µm.
Rays exclusively multiseriate, 3-14 cells wide (), composed of procumbent and square body ray cells and 1 to 2 square to upright marginal ray cells (); height 750-8700 µm, density 1-3 per mm.
Axial parenchyma scarce and scanty paratracheal as 2-4 celled strands; strands 350-550 µm high.
Fibres septate and thin- to thick-walled (), walls 2-4 µm, lumina 7-15 µm wide. Pits simple or sometimes minutely bordered (), 2-3 µm in size, oval to slit-like, concentrated in radial walls.
Silica bodies present in ray cells ().
Groups of sclereids in pith.
The wood of Clavija lancifolia corresponds with other Clavija species studied, and shows many similarities with Theophrasta. Both genera differ from Bonellia, Deherainia and Jacquinia based on their narrower vessels (generally less than 30 µm in tangential width), higher vessel densities (often between 60-80 per mm2), longer vessel elements (usually 300-450 µm) and septate fibres, while the latter three genera can be identified by their pronounced vessel clustering (Lens et al. 2005).