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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 grandiflora Morton ex A. Gentry,
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Note
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TYPE: Costa Rica, San Jose, vicinity of El General, 730 m, Skutch 4049 (MO, holotype).
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Description
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Tree 10 m tall; branchlets subterete, glabrous, drying tan. Leaves alternate, 5-13 cm long, 2-4.7 cm wide, oblong-elliptic to obovate-elliptic, acute to acu- minate, cuneate at the base, chartaceous to coriaceous, entire, drying dark brown above, brown beneath, the lateral veins 6-10 on a side, not clearly differentiated from tertiary venation, the tertiary venation intricately prominulous below, more or less plane above, densely minutely lepidote-punctate above, glabrous, the petiole slender, 1-2 cm long, glabrous. Inflorescence a narrow open axillary panicle, ca. 8-12 cm long, appressed puberulous, the flowers fewer than 14, on 1.5-3 mm long pedicels. Flowers very large for the family, 5 mm long in bud; sepals 5, orbicular, 2 mm in diam., ciliate-fringed, otherwise glabrous, subtended by several progressively smaller bracteoles resembling additional sepals; outer petals white, turning pale orange, suborbicular, 5-6 mm long and wide, the mar- gins not noticeably thinfier, not at all or sparsely ciliate; stamens 2, exceeded by the attached basal appendages, the thecae thick, suborbicular, 1 mm long; ovary narrowly conical, glabrous, 1 mm long, apically merging with the 2.5-3 mm long style. Fruit obovoid-pyriform, 2-2.5 cm long, 1.6-1.9 cm wide.
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Habit
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Tree
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Note
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The type specimen is marked "Meliosma grandiflora Morton, n.sp., cotype" but that name was never published. The species is a distinctive one, having by far the largest flowers in the genus and apparently in the family as well. Vege- tatively it is characterized by the small leaves with thin proportionally long pet- ioles and intricately sculpted upper leaf surface. It is known from middle elevation wet forests on the Pacific slope of the central Cordillera between 700 and 1,100 m altitude. The Cocle Province specimen cited below may not be conspecific with the Costa Rican collections [type and COSTA RICA: Puntarenas: 1 mi S of San Vito de Java (just across Panamanian border), Raven 21914 (F, MO).] and is not included in the description. It differs in having leaves with less prominulous tertiary venation beneath and a smaller (but possibly immature) much more strongly keeled and asymmetric fruit.
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Specimen
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COCLE: 4 km N of El Valle, 875 m, Nee & Dwyer 9175 (MO).
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Tag
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Project Name
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Tag
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