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(Last Modified On 1/22/2013)
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(Last Modified On 1/22/2013)
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Species
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BROSIMUM GUIANENSE (Aubl.) Huber
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PlaceOfPublication
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Bull. Mus. Goeldi 5: 337. 1909.
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Synonym
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Piratinera guianense Aubl. Hist. P1. Guian. Fr. 2:888; 4: t. 340. 1775. Piratinera panamensis Pittier, in Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 20:100.pl. 7. 1917. Brosimum panamense (Pittier) Standl. & Steyerm. in Field Mus. Publ. Bot. 23:40. 1944.
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Description
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Trees to about 2 5 m. tall, essentially glabrous throughout. Leaves oblong- obovate, abruptly and obtusely acuminate to subcuspidate, the base broadly obtuse to rounded, entire, 5-12 cm. long, 2.5-4.0 cm. broad, firmly membranaceous, the petiole about 5 mm. long; stipules lateral, about 5 mm. long. Heads broadly obconic to turbinate, usually somewhat lobed or convolute, about 7-10 mm. broad, the slender peduncle about 1.0-1.5 cm. long. Staminate flowers with a low vestigial perianth and 1 stamen with a rather thick filament about 2 mm. long and an obliquely inserted broadly oval anther up to 1 mm. long, associated with suborbicular shortly-stipitate peltate bracts. Pistillate flowers 1-3. Mature fruit unknown.
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Habit
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Tree
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Distribution
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British Honduras to Venezuela, in lowland forests.
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Specimen
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SAN BLAS: Puerto Obaldia, Pittier 4336.
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Note
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A photograph of Aublet's collection at the British Museum shows that Pittier was correct in associating P. panamensis with P. guianensis; they probably are conspecific. Pittier 4336 is represented in the U. S. National Herbarium by three sheets, each with several inflorescences. I have been unable to detect the plural pistillate flowers which Pittier considered so important in maintaining Piratinera distinct from Brosimum, either in the remnants of the inflorescences which Pittier himself supposedly dissected or in an additional one which I dissected myself. One head, however, does indeed appear to be pistillate (without external evidence of staminate flowers), but I have not had the temerity to dissect it. Here, as in other species of Brosimum in Panama, the heads would appear frequently to be unisexual. As Standley expresses it pointedly in the cited references, "In typical Brosimum there is only one pistillate flower, in Piratinera two; but with ordinary herbarium specimens it is difficult to find even one pistillate flower, to say nothing of discovering two, and the difference is at least not a practical one."
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