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(Last Modified On 7/3/2013)
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(Last Modified On 7/3/2013)
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Genus
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Caryocar L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Mant. P1. 2: 247. 1771.
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Note
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TYPE: C. nuciferum L.
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Description
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Large trees or rarely shrubs or subshrubs; branches opposite and frequently horizontal. Leaves opposite, usually long-petiolate but very rarely almost sessile, trifoliolate; stipules absent or present and soon caducous; leaflets with short petioles, pinnately nerved, the margins serrate, crenate, dentate or rarely entire; often with 2-4 stipels at the base of the leaflets, the stipels persistent or caducous, sometimes with 2 large and 2 small stipels. Inflorescences terminal racemes with a short rachis, often corymbose; pedicels apically articulate; bracts seldom de- veloped, usually none, the bracteoles lateral, alternate, small, subpersistent or caducous. Flowers hermaphroditic, large; calyx distinctly 5(-6) -lobed, imbricate; petals 5 or rarely 6, imbricate, basally fused together with the base of the fila- ments and often caducous with the filaments; stamens numerous, 57-750, exceed- ing the petals, the filaments bent into an S in bud, those on the interior shorter and sterile or with smaller anthers and often a row of short sterile staminodes on the interior, the basal portion of which forms a glandular nectary, the filaments apically tuberculate and the entire length of the smaller filaments sometimes tu- berculate, the anthers bilocular, oblong, introrse, dorsifixed or basifixed, longi- tudinally dehiscent; ovary usually 4(-6)-locular with 1 ovule in each locule, the styles 4, long, filamentous. Fruits 4-6-locular drupes with 1-4 locules developing and dehiscing into 1-seeded cocci, the mesocarp thick and fatty or fleshy, the endocarp woody, muricate, tuberculate or spinous on the exterior; seeds reniform or subreniform, the embryo with a straight to arcuate radicle. Germination hypo- geal, the first leaves opposite (in 2 species observed).
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Habit
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trees or rarely shrubs or subshrubs
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Distribution
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The genus includes 15 species ranging from Costa Rica to southern Brazil, but it is most abundant in the Guianas and Amazonia.
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Note
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It is predominantly low- land with one species growing on forested uplands in Venezuela.
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Key
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a. Stipels present; leaf margins coarsely serrate; calyx 6-7 mm long; stamens 150-200; fruit to 6 cm long. b. Leaf underside with a hirsute mass at the junction of the primary veins and midrib; terminal blade 13-16.5 cm long ...... 2. C. costaricense bb. Leaf underside entirely glabrous, without a hirsute mass at the junction of the pri- mary veins and midrib; terminal blade 7-12 cm long ...... 1. C. amygdaliferum aa. Stipels absent; leaf margins entire or weakly crenulate; calyx ca. 20 mm long; stamens ca. 700; fruit to 15 cm long ...... 3. C. nuciferum
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