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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 donnellsmithii Urb.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Bot. Gaz. 37: 214. 1904.
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Note
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TYPE: Costa Rica, Cartago, 500 m, Donnell Smith 6852 (US, holotype; NY, US, isotypes).
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Description
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Small tree 3-8 m tall; branchlets not seen. Leaves large, oblanceolate, 30-54 cm long, 10-15 cm wide, abruptly short acuminate, tapering gradually toward the base, the extreme base auriculately rounded, entire to remotely and inconspic- uously serrate toward the apex, drying dark olive below, darker above, the main veins plane or somewhat impressed above, prominent below, the lateral veins 19-23 on a side, tertiary venation prominulous below, minutely punctate, glabrous
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Habit
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tree
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Description
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except for a few appressed trichomes along the midvein; petiole lacking or short and thick, 0.4-1 cm long, appressed puberulous. Inflorescence cauliflorous, open- ly paniculate, to 25 cm long, appressed puberulous, the flowers subsessile on the ultimate third or fourth order branches. Flowers with the sepal suborbicular, the apex rounded, ciliate, otherwise glabrous, 1 mm long and wide; outer petals broadly ovate, erose but not ciliate, ca. 1.5 mm long, ca. 2 mm wide, the interior petals narrow; fertile stamens 2, with linear filaments ca. 1 mm long, the anther thecae orbicular, ca. 0.2 mm long; ovary ovoid, glabrous, the apex contracted into the base of the style, the stigma briefly 2-lobed. Fruit obovoid-globose, 1.5- 2 cm long and wide, glabrous.
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Note
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Although not yet found in Panama, Meliosma donnellsmithii occurs in the Atlantic coastal lowlands and the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica; thus it is to be expected both in Bocas del Toro and the Burica Peninsula in Panama. This species is unique among the Central American species of Meliosma in its large subsessile leaves with more or less auriculate bases. The plant is strik- ingly reminiscent of such pachycaulous species of Lecythidaceae as Gustavia superba. A related but apparently undescribed species with similar large, but non-au- riculate leaves, a terminal more open inflorescence, and pedicellate flowers occurs on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica.
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Distribution
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Costa Rica
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Tag
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Project Name
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Tag
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