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(Last Modified On 9/19/2013)
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(Last Modified On 9/19/2013)
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Species
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Meliosma allenii Standley & L. 0. Williams
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PlaceOfPublication
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Ceiba 3: 213. 1953.
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Note
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Nom. nov. for M. maxima Standley & L. 0. Williams.
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Synonym
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Meliosma maxima Standley & L. 0. Williams, Ceiba 1: 242. 1951. TYPE: Costa Rica, Puntarenas, Palmar Norte, Allen 5648 (F, holotype; F, US, isotypes), non Standley & Steyermark, 1944. Meliosma longipetiolata Standley & L. 0. Williams ex Brizicky, Trop. Woods 110: 39. 1959. TYPE: Costa Rica, Puntarenas, near Palmar Norte, Allen 5648 (US, holotype; F. MO, isotypes).
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Description
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Tree 10-15 m tall; branchlets sparsely appressed puberulous when young, glabrate, hollow, smooth, essentially elenticellate though often with large elliptic light-drying lenticel-like spots. Leaves alternate, 13-33 cm long, 3.5-14 cm wide, narrowly oblong-elliptic to oblong-obovate, briefly acuminate to acute, cuneate at the base, chartaceous, entire, drying darker above, the veins plane above, the midveins and the lateral veins prominent below, the lateral veins (11-)13-22 on a side, straight and strongly ascending, the tertiary venation prominulous below, minutely punctate above and below, glabrous or with a few inconspicuous subap- pressed trichomes along the main veins below, the petiole minutely puberulous, 4-9 cm long. Inflorescence arising from the leaf axils or below the leaves on young branches, puberulous, pyramidal-paniculate, the sessile flowers clustered on short-axised fascicles along the subspicate lateral branches. Flowers with 5 sepals, subequal, suborbicular, ciliate, sparsely appressed-puberulous, ca. 1 mm long; outer petals 3, greenish yellow to yellow orange, drying blackish, broadly ovate, the apex rounded, 1.5-1.8 mm long and wide, the narrow margin thinner, the inner petals smaller, narrow; stamens 2, the anther thecae thick and subor- bicular, 0.2 mm long, separated by the broad connective the staminodes 3; ovary ovoid, glabrous, ca. 0.8 mm long, apically merging with the style. Fruit obovoid- globose, glabrous, single-seeded, ca. 2 cm long, 1.5-2 cm in diam., subsessile on a short thick pedicel.
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Habit
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Tree
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Note
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This species occurs on the Osa Peninsula and Golfo Dulce area of southeastern Costa Rica and adjacent Panama. A closely related similarly long-petiolate plant occurs in Amazonian Peru and may be conspecific.
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Distribution
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Costa Rica and adjacent Panama.
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Note
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Meliosma allenii was described (as M. maxima) from fruiting material; M. longipetiolata from flowering material. The main difference cited by Brizicky in separating M. longipetiolata from M. allenii was its more numerous lateral nerves (18-22 per side versus 15). This is a manifestly variable character: one isotype of M. allenii has up to 17 pairs of lateral nerves, while some leaves of the MO isotype of M. longipetiolata have as few as 16 pairs of lateral nerves. The main diagnostic feature of M. allenii is the unusually long petiole.
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Specimen
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CHIRIQUi: 11 mi W of Puerto Armuelles, San Bartolo Limite, 100-500 m, Liesner 74 (MO). Between Cafiazo and Cocos, near Puerto Armuelles, Stern & Chambers 145 (F, MO, NY).
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