Carapa.org - vasquezii

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Carapa vasquezii Kenfack sp. nov.

Ref. Kenfack, D. Carapa vasquezii sp. nov. (Meliaceae) from western Amazonia. Brittonia 63:7-10 (2011).

JTOR PLANT SCIENCE: http://plants.jstor.org/specimen/k000582069

This species is named after the Peruvian botanist Rodolpho Vàsquez one of the collectors of the type specimen.

Type

The type was collected on 10 Jan 1984 by Rodolpho Vàsquez and N. Jaramillo in Loreto, Peru. (below location of the collection).

Tree and Leaves

Trees are up to 30 m tall and 25 up to 53 cm in diameter. They have straight bole, cylindrical, and lack buttresses. The bark is soft, smooth, becoming flaky on older trees, and pink when slashed. Branches spread arching upwards. Leaves are between 45–95 cm long, with petiole 10–28 cm in length. Their base is swollen, and generally with one nectary on each side of the abaxial surface. Rachis is 30–70 cm long, glabrous, with 6–10 pairs of leaflets, the petiolules being 0.5–2 cm long and densely farinose. Leaflets are ca. 10–20 x 6–10 cm, coriaceous, glabrous beneath, oblong to elliptic-oblong, with their apex rounded to obtuse, mucronate, and the base rounded, midrib prominent beneath, densely farinose. The secondary veins are 8–17 on each side, and tertiary veins are dense and ± raised beneath.

Inflorescence and flowers

The inflorescence is in the axils of fully developed or reduced scale-like leaves ranging (20–)40–60 cm long, erect to spreading, and densely farinose. It has a peduncle 11–24 cm long, lowermost branches up to 25 cm long. Flowers are 4 to 5 merous, with a pedicel 2–4 mm long that is densely rusty farinose. Sepals are green, glabrous whereas petals are cream-white, glabrous to sparsely and finely farinose, with 1 or 2 nectaries towards the apex. Ovary contains locules that are 6-ovulate.

Fruit and seeds

The fruit is globose, ca. 6-7 in diameter, brown with 4 valves, each having a median rib, surface with numerous black nectaries. Seeds are angular and 2–3 in lenth up to 6 per valve. Their hilum is 3–7 x 2–3.5 mm, with dark brown testa, smooth on the sides, and rugose edges and wooly on the angles, often with numerous black glands.

Phenology

Flowering has been observed between July and January, and fruiting in January and February lacking census during other months of the year.

Ecology

Carapa vazquezii occurs in Brazil, Colombia and Peru, and has been mainly reported from inundated lowland forest between 60 and 180 m altitude.

Notes

Specimens of Carapa vasquezii have been confused with both C. surinamensis and C. guianensis, but several characters distinguish them , especially leaflet apex and the number of ovulate (seeds) per locule (valve), as well as the size of the hilum (Kenfack 2011)

Reference

Kenfack, D. (2011) A synoptic revision of Carapa (Meliaceae). Harvard Papers in Botany 16 (2): 171-231.

Kenfack, D. (2011) Carapa vasquezii sp. nov. (Meliaceae) from western Amazonia. Brittonia 63: 7-10.