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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 linearifolia A. Gentry
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Note
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TYPE: Panama, Correa & Dressler 1148 (MO, holotype).
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Description
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Pachycaul tree 4-15 m tall, 4 cm d.b.h.; branchlets thick, somewhat angular, minutely puberulous, soon glabrate, elenticellate. Leaves alternate, clustered at the branch tips, 40-60 cm long, 2.5-7.5 cm wide, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, apices not seen, basally gradually attenuate, usually more or less auriculate at the extreme base, entire, coriaceous, strikingly bullate, the main veins impressed above and raised below, the surface densely minutely punctate, puberulous with minute, mostly gland-tipped trichomes along the veins and sparsely over the surface below and sometimes above; petiole puberulous, in part with gland-tipped trichomes, usually thick and less than 1 cm long, to 3 cm long on young branch- lets.- Inflorescence a large open terminal panicle 40-70 cm long, puberulous with erect reddish trichomes in part gland-tipped, the flowers with individual pedicels mostly ca. 1 mm long. Flowers cream with brown calyces; sepals 5, subequal, suborbicular, ca. 1 mm long, long ciliate, also with a few scattered simple tri- chomes and stalked glands; 3 outer petals broadly ovate, entire, ca. 1.5 mm long and 1.2 mm wide, with a broad thinner margin; fertile stamens 2, ca. 1 mm long, the anther thecae ovoid, contiguous at the middle but the bases separated by the thickened connective, the filament broad and strap-shaped; ovary ovoid-globose, ca. 0.6 mm long, the stigma short, ca. 0.1 mm long. Fruit pyriform-globose, 1.5- 1.8 cm long, 1.5-1.7 cm wide, glabrous.
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Habit
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tree
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Distribution
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known only from Central Panama.
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Note
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It is easily the most dis- tinctive species of Meliosma on account of its strikingly linear bullate leaves. The species is locally fairly common in sterile condition on Cerro Jefe but I have never seen it in the field in flower or fruit.
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Specimen
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COLON: Santa Rita Ridge trail, beyond end of Santa Rita Ridge Road, 17-35 km from Boyd- Roosevelt Highway 400-800 m, Mori & Crosby 6335 (MO). PANAMA: NE of Cerro Azul, 20 km by road from Panamerican Highway, Mori & Kallunki 3647 (MO).
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Tag
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Project Name
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