(Last Modified On 1/25/2013)
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(Last Modified On 1/25/2013)
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Species
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PLEUROPETALUM SPRUCEI (Hook. f.) Standl.
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PlaceOfPublication
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N. Am. Fl. 21:96. 1917.
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Synonym
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Melanocarpum sprucei Hook. f. in Benth. & Hook. Gen. 3:24. 1880. Pleuropetatum costaricense Hort. Kew, ex Hemsl. Biol. Centr. Am. Bot. 3 :12. 1882. Pleuropetalum tucurriquense Donn. Smith, in Bot. Gaz. 61:387. 1916. Pleuropetalum calospermumr Standl. in Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci. 13:368. 1923.
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Description
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Erect sparingly branched subglabrous suffruticose herbs or shrubs to 3 m. high. Leaves glabrous to minutely strigillose on the veins below, broadly lanceolate to rhombic-ovate, often falcate, apically attenuate, basally acute to subrounded, 3-15 cm. long, 1-6 cm. broad; petioles 5-20 mm. long. Inflorescences of mostly terminal corymbose racemes, the rhachises usually glandular. Flowers perfect, on pedicels 1-10 mm. long; bracts and bracteoles subequal, ovate to orbicular, carinate, 0.5-1 mm. long; sepals 5, subequal, ovate, concave, glabrate or scurfy, rounded to subacute, ultimately spreading, 2-4 mm. long, 1-2 mm. broad, with 7-13 (-17) ribs; stamens 5-8; filaments 2-3 mm. long; filament tube 1-2 mm. long; anthers oblong; ovary globose; style 1, about 0.5 mm. long; stigmata mostly 3-4, longer than the style, ultimately reflexed. Fruit an irregularly dehiscent capsule exceeding the sepals, 4-7 mm. long, 3-6 mm. broad; seeds cochleate-orbiculate, black, lustrous, reticulate, 1.5-2.2 mm. long, on filiform or flattened funicles becoming 1-3 mm. long.
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Habit
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herbs or shrubs
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Specimen
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BOCAS DEL TORO: vicinity of Chiriqui Lagoon, von Wedel I028. CHIRIQUI: Bajo Mono, Boquete District, 4500 ft., Davidsont 48I; R. Chiriqui Viejo Valley, on island near River, White I50; valley of the upper Rio Chiriqui' Viejo, 1300-1900 in., White t" White i2.
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Distribution
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This woodland species ranges from Jalisco to Peru.
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Note
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The Jalisco specimen (Mexia i899) is atypical in having a circumscissile capsule, in that respect resem- bling the Galapagos species P. dartvinii Hook. f. Standley (in Jour. Wash. Acad. 13:368. 1923.) describes P. calosper imn from Salvador, and ascribes to it larger seeds, sepals and capsules than occur in P. sprucci. The larger seed size is not always correlated with the larger sepals. Variations in sepal and capsule size are frequently great enough in single specimens to embrace the descriptions of both species, so they are here concluded to be conspecific.
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