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(Last Modified On 3/18/2013)
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(Last Modified On 3/18/2013)
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Species
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Adelia triloba (Muell.-Arg.) Hemsley
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PlaceOfPublication
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Biol. Centr.-Amer. Bot. 3: 130, 1883.- Fig. 11.
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Synonym
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Ricinella triloba Muell.-Arg., Linnaea 34: 153, 1865. ? Adelia panamensis Pax & Hoffm., Pflanzenreich 63 (IV, 147, VII): 67, 1914.
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Description
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Shrub or tree up to 15 m high; dioecious; trunk slender to 2 dm thick; twigs pale, smooth, terete, with inconspicuous lenticels, not spinescent. Leaves chartace- ous; petioles glabrate, ca 4-9 mm long; stipules lanceolate, inconspicuous, 1 mm long or less; blades elliptic to obovate, mostly 5-20 cm long, 2-7 cm broad, glabrous except for tufts of straight simple hairs in the axils of main veins beneath (rarely entirely glabrous), the major veins ca 5-8 on a side, straight, distinctly raised beneath, the veinlets forming a conspicuous reticulum beneath, the base tapering, narrowly-rounded to subcordate, the margins entire, the apex abruptly cuspidate- acuminate (acumen mostly 1-1.5 cm long). Inflorescences glomerulate, several to many flowers of each sex in dense axillary clusters. Staminate flowers with slender pubescent pedicels mostly 4-7 mm long; calyx-lobes 5, elliptic, pointed, ca 2-2.3 mm long, pubescent outside!; disc fleshy, ca 1-1.3 mm in diam; stamens mostly 13-16, in 2 or more whorls (often 8 or 9 at base, 5 or 6 at the top), the filaments connate into a column ca 0.5-1 mm high, terminated by a pistillode, the filament tips slender, ca 1-1.5 mm long, the anthers blunt, ca 0.4 mm long. Pistillate flowers with glabrate pedicels- becoming 2-7 cm long in fruit; calyx-lobes 6, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, blunt or acute, 3-6.5 mm long, pubescent; disc as in 6'; ovary densely pubescent, the styles free, or shortly connate basally, spreading, deeply fimbriate-lacerate, ca (1.2-)1.5-3.5 mm long. Capsules trigonous, deeply emarginate-depressed at the top (cocci connate only in lower 1/2 or 2/3), 7-11 mm in diam, 5.8-7.5 mm high, pubescent; columella slender, more or less purplish- tinged, 3-pronged at tip, 3.5-4 mm long; seeds subspheroidal or sometimes distinctly oblate, 3.1-4.1 mm long, 3.4-4 mm in diam, smooth, grayish or waxy-whitenecia, with distinct raphe.
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Distribution
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Forests, Costa Rica and Panama.
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Specimen
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BOCAS DEL TORO: Almirante, Daytonia Farm, Cooper 394 (F); id., Cooper 428 (NY, US), 431 (A, F, GH, US); Changuinola Valley, Dunlap 218 (F, US), 434 (F); Water Valley, von Wedel 1541 (GH, MO). CANAL ZONE: Barro Colorado I, Shattuck 748 (F), 806 (F, MO), Wetmore & Abbe 35 (A, GH), 145 (GH), 153 (GH), Wilson 27 (F), Woodworth & Vestal 510 (A), 522 (A); Cerro Gordo, Pittier 2313 (US); Darien, Macbride 2696 (F), Standley 31549 (US), 31635 (US); Fort Sherman, Blum, & Dwyer 2106 (MO), Johnston 1735 (GH, MO), Tyson 2106 (MO); 6 mi N of Gamboa, Tyson 3493 (MO); Gorgona to Mamei, Pittier 2249 (A, GH, US); Las Cascadas plantation, Standley 25815 (US); vic of Madden Dam, disturbed forest, Lewis et al. 4 (MO); Mamei, Hayes 498 (isotype K); Mojinga Swamp, Allen 869 (MO); Quebrada Melgada, drowned forest and sabanas, Steyermark 17489 (MO, UC); Rio Agua Salud, nr Frijoles, Piper 5861 (US). COCLE: Bismarck, above Penonome, Williams 265 (NY, US). DARIEN: Garachine, forests nr sea, Pittier 5510 (holotype of A. panamensis, US); Marraganti, Williams 638 (NY). PANAMA: Juan Diaz, Standley 30509 (US); Juan Diaz to Matias Hernandez, Standley 31962 (US); Rio Tapia, Standley 30687 (US); Rio Tocumen, Standley 29447 (US).
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Note
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This variable species, which is quite common in disturbed forests in the Canal Zone, is very similar to A. barbinervis Cham. & Schl. of Mexico and northern Central America. However, it clearly differs in the characteristically deeply lobed cocci of the fruit, less densely pubescent ovary, and more deeply divided styles. The status of A. panamensis, described by Pax and Hoffmann on the basis of the single Pittier collection from Darien, is still difficult to evaluate. The spines- cent branches and small leaves (ca 3-5 cm long) suggest the West Indian A. ricinella L., from which the Darien plant would appear to differ in its articulate fruiting pedicels and perhaps larger seeds. However, it should be noted that the spinescent branches and small leaves of Pittier's specimen occasionally occur in otherwise typical A. triloba (e.g. in Standley 30509 from Panama); and one speci- men of A. triloba (Allen 869 from Mojinga Swamp) has articulate fruiting pedicels. It is possible, therefore, that A. panamensis merely represents an aberrant variant from a drier habitat. The only distinctive character of the taxon not matched in A. triloba appears to be the large number of y calyx-lobes (mostly 7-9 vs. 6 in A. triloba); but with only a single collection it is impossible to decide whether this feature characterizes a distinct population. Until further collections, including d flowers, can be made in the area it seems best tentatively to regard A. pana- mensis as a local variation of A. triloba. The resemblance of the type collection of A. panamensis to the West Indian A. ricinella brings up a further perplexing difficulty. Although it differs from A. triloba in various tendencies (e.g. more pronounced spininess, smaller leaves and seeds), A. ricinella is extremely close overall and not sharply separable by any one character (except possibly the fruit, if the capsules of the West Indian plants, not seen entire, prove not to be deeply trilobed). It might be more reasonable to treat these two taxa as allopatric subspecies of a single species.
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