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Notes:
This species has been included within the circumscription of Palicourea longiflora, however it can be distinguished morphologically and appears to replace Palicourea longiflora in the central Amazon basin. Palicourea barraensis can be recognized by its leaves that are usually purple on the underside at least when young, its longer corollas that are glabrous externally, and its larger fruits that are somewhat flattened when young but become rounded at maturity; vs. somewhat shorter corollas that are densely puberulous externally and smaller fruits that remain laterally flattened at maturity. In both species the inflorescence axes are unusual in becoming thickened and fleshy as the fruits mature, similarly to some species of Chassalia. Also in both species the corollas are yellow to orange except with the lobes or apical portion pink to purple. Palicourea barraensis was described based on specimens with the flowers only in bud and its identity has not been clear until the excellent documentation of this species by the Ducke Reserve flora project at INPA (Campos et al., 1999, p. 195). This species was included within the circumscription of Palicourea longiflora in that flora (Campos et al., 1999; Taylor et al., 2007), but recent study (CMT, 2014) shows these are distinct.
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