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(Last Modified On 5/9/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/9/2013)
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Genus
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Picramnia Sw.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Prodr. 27. 1788, nom. cons.
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Synonym
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Pseudobrasilium Adans., Fam. 2: 341. 1763. Tariri Aubl., Hist. PI. Guiane Fr. 1: 37. 1775.
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Description
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Shrubs or trees, usually with slender curving branches, the bark and wood often quite bitter to the taste. Leaves alternate, odd- or even-pinnate; leaflets (3-)6-20, alternate to opposite, usually entire, chartaceous to coriaceous, petio- luled. Inflorescences long, slender, many-flowered racemes or panicles, aggre- gated to solitary, terminal to axillary. Flowers small, 3-, 4-, or 5-merous, unisexual, the plants dioecious; sepals 3-5, connate at least basally, imbricate; petals 3-5, or sometimes absent, linear to elliptic or lanceolate, ca. as long as or a little longer than the sepals, imbricate; stamens as many as and opposite the petals, reduced to staminodes or absent in carpellate flowers, exserted, the filaments inserted between and below the lobes of the small intrastaminal disc, rarely adnate to the petals, the anthers basifixed, 2-lobed, the lobes separated by a thick connective; gynoecium 2-3-carpelled, syncarpous, rudimentary or absent in staminate flowers, 2-3-lobed and -loculed, the ovules 2 per locule, pendulous, anatropous and epi- tropous, placentation axile, the style bilobed, persistent and spreading in fruit, the upper surface stigmatiferous, absent in staminate flowers. Fruit a berry, obovoid to ellipsoid, 1-3-loculed; seeds 1-3, 1 per locule, the testa membranace- ous, the endosperm absent.
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Habit
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Shrubs or trees
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Distribution
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About 40 species in tropical America.
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Note
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This is the only New World genus of the family that was not treated by Cronquist in his series of revisions published in the 1940's, and most species are ill-defined and poorly known. Anyone attempt- ing to identify unknown collections of Picramnia will surely agree with Brizicky (Jour. Arnold Arbor. 43: 182. 1962) that "The genus, which represents a sub- family of its own, is in need of a revision." Berries of some species are eaten, while those of others are reported to have a bitter taste. Leaves, roots, and especially the bark are used medicinally. The flowers of all species are small (less than 5 mm long) and are difficult to examine without a dissecting microscope. However, sepal number is easily determined with or without a hand lens even in fruiting specimens, as the sepals persist until the pedicels articulate and the berries drop from the plant.
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Key
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a. Sepals 3. b. Leaflets 12-20, the secondary veins beneath glabrous ..... 1. P. allenji bb.Leaflets 7-11, the secondary veins beneath pubescent. c. Leaflets 7-8; the blade sparingly appressed-pubescent beneath, especially basally; the lowermost leaflets acute to obtuse and inequilateral basally - 2. P. cooperi cc. Leaflets 9-11; the blade villous beneath; the lowermost leaflets cordate basally ..... 3. P. carpinterae aa. Sepals 4 or 5. d. Sepals 4; leaflets 8-13(-17), ovate to obovate or oblanceolate, the terminal leaflets elliptic, the petiolules densely tomentose ...... 4. P. dwyeri dd. Sepals 5. e. Leaflets (3-)6-8(-9), ovate to elliptic or oblong, the petiolules sparingly pubes- cent to glabrate ..... 5. P. latifolia ee. Leaflets 10-15, elliptic or the'lowermost ovate, the petiolules densely appressed- tomentulose ....... 6. P. corallodendron
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