Coussapoa asperifolia

Primary tabs

Coussapoa asperifolia

Description

Shrub or tree up to 25 m tall. Branchlets 3-20 mm thick, usually abruptly thickened closely below the apex and widely hollow, puberulous to hispidulous, sometimes partly hirtellous. Stipules 0.5-3.5 cm long, puberulous to hispidulous, sometimes partly hirtellous; petiole 1.5-15 cm long; blade coriaceous to subcoriaceous, obovate to narrowly obovate to elliptic to narrowly elliptic or to suborbicular, ovate or cordiform, 7-32 x 4-24 cm, apex rounded to obtuse or to emarginate, base obtuse to cordate, margin entire to subcrenate, scabrous to smooth above, puberulous (to hispidulous or partly hirtellous) beneath; secondary veins 4-9 pairs, mostly all of them branched, sometimes basal pair unbranched or faintly branched, (main) basal pair reaching the margin at, below or above the middle of the lamina, tertiary venation prominent to plane. Staminate inflorescences branched; heads numerous, free or partly fused, ca. 0.3-2 cm in diam.; common peduncle 2-8 cm long; stamen 1, as long as or slightly longer than the perianth. Pistillate inflorescences unbranched or branched; heads 1-6, free or partly fused, ca. 0.3-1.2 cm, in fruit up to 3 cm in diam.; (common) peduncle 1-9.5 cm long. Interfloral bracts present.

Notes

Three subspecies are recognized; two of them are found in the Guianas, the third one (subsp. rhamnoides (Standl.) Akkermans & C.C. Berg is only known from the Amazon Basin (Peru, Brazil).