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Published In: Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis 4: 367. 1830. (Sept 1830) (Prodr.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 12/8/2022)
Acceptance : Accepted
Note : Tribe Dialypetalantheae
Project Data     (Last Modified On 12/8/2022)
Notes:

Calycophyllum includes about 10 species of medium-sized trees or occasionally large (to 45 m tall, Calycophyllum megistocaulum) found in wet to seasonal forests across the Neotropics. Calycophyllum has opposite petiolate leaves, interpetiolar to calyptrate stipules, terminal cymose inflorescences, homostylous protandrous 4--8-merous flowers, medium--sized to somewhat small funnelform white corollas, ca. 2-5 mm long, with thinly imbricate to thinly convolute lobes, exserted anthers and stigmas, bilocular inferior ovaries, and septicidal capsules with numerous winged seeds. Calycophyllum characteristically has distinctive trunks with smooth bark that peeels in thin reddened layers, and Delprete (1996) reported that they lack buttresses and have white wood. Several species of Calycophyllum have showy whitened calycophylls. Delprete (1996) described the genus as having at least one species with 5-merous flowers, and this report has been copied by subsequent authors (e.g., Taylor et al., 2004) but 5-merous flowers have not been confirmed in this genus in this study. Calycophyllum candidissimum in particular is very showy in flower with its large cymse of white corollas, bracts, and calycophylls, and this species forms large showy stands in dry vegetation and is commonly cultivated. This species is common in Nicaragua and is that country's national tree.

Calycophyllum has not been studied as a whole; an outline of the species that are currently recognized is presented here but is mainly based on a summary of the current literature, not a comprehensive review. In a molecular systematic study, Kainulainen et al. (2010; as Condamineeae) found Calycophyllum to belong to the Tribe Dialypetalantheae, and related to Alseis. The flowers of several species of the "Semaphyllanthe" group are poorly known or not yet documented.

Andersson (1995) studied Calycophyllum with a morphological cladistic analysis, and found two groups of species that were separated by several characters. Based on this he recognized two genera, Calycophyllum, with three species found in seasonal and wet forest from Mexico to Argentina, and Semaphyllanthe, with six species found in wet forest in South America. Semaphyllanthe was then evaluated morphologically by Delprete (1996) and subsequent authors, who concluded that the characters used to distinguish it were more variable than noted by Andersson, and they did not separate this genus. Kainulainen et al. (2010) first studied this genus with molecular sequence data, and found Calycophyllum sensu stricto separated from the one species of Andersson's Semaphyllanthe that they studied. However this species, Calycophyllum megistocaulum, is not the type species of Semaphyllanthe and was considered "aberrant" and included there only provisionablly by Andersson. Thus, this one species very likely is not be related to the rest of this group, but the status of Semaphyllanthe is not yet clarified. See the genus page for Semaphyllanthe for detailed discussion of its characters and separation. Semaphyllanthe (sensu stricto) is not separated here, because the characters used by Andersson to separate it are variable within other Rubiaceae genera, and a new species that was discovered subsequently combines the characters of both of these groups as noted by Kirkbride (1997). Further study may well show these two genera are distinct, and will be needed to clarify the status of these groups and of Calycophyllum megistocaulum.

Calycophyllum is similar to some species of Chimarrhis, which has interpetiolar stipules that are twisted in bud and protogynous flowers, and to Capirona, which has stipules that split into intrapetiolar segments and much larger pink corollas. Capirona and Calycophyllum megistocaulum are sympatric and both are important timber trees with smooth green trunks, and these species are both sometimes called "capirona" locally. Macrocnemum also has generally smooth, thin-barked trunks, along with interpetiolar stipules that are flat and held erect in bud. Calycophyllum is als similar in to Exostema, which has 5-merous flowers and larger corollas, ca. 8-25 mm long. Calycophyllum is also similar to Warszewiczia, which has interpetiolar sitpules that are twisted in bud, 5-merous protogynous flowers, and small capsules that dehisce mainly through the beak (i.e., disk) portion. Smooth trunks with flaking bark are also found in some species of Guettarda and Stenostomum, with fleshy fruits with a single large bony pyrene.

Author: C.M. Taylor
The content of this web page was last revised on 8 December 2022.
Taylor web page: http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/taylor.shtml

Distribution: Wet to seasonal forests at 0-1200 m, from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.
References:

 

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Trees, unarmed, terrestrial, without raphides in the tissues, often with smooth trunks with thin-textured peeling bark. Leaves opposite, petiolate, entire, with higher-order venation not lineolate, often with pubescent domatia; stipules interpetiolar or calyptrate cap, triangular, acute, erect and convolute or fully fused in bud, caducous often leaving a ring of persistent whitened pilose trichomes at the attachment point. Inflorescences terminal and in axils of uppermost leaves, cymose, multiflowered, pedunculate, bracteate with bracts sometimes calyptrate. Flowers subsessile to pedicellate, bisexual, homostylous, protandrous, fragrant, apparently diurnal; hypanthium turbinate to ellipsoid; calyx limb developed, 4--5-lobed, sometimes with 1 white calycophyll on some flowers; corolla funnelform to campanulate, white or cream, internally pubescent on uppper part of tube and throat, lobes 4--5, triangular to ligulate, imbricated in bud, without appendage; stamens 4--5, inserted at top of corolla tube, anthers ellipsoid, basifixed, opening by linear slits, without appendage, exserted; ovary 2-locular, with ovules numerous in each locule on axile placentas; stigmas 2, exserted. Fruits capsular, ellipsoid to obovoid, septicidally dehiscent from apex, woody to chartaceous, with calyx limb persistent; seeds numerous, fusiform to ellipsoid, flattened, medium-sized (1--13 x 1--6 mm), marginally winged, wing entire to erose or ciliate. 

 

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Schematic Key to Species of Calycophyllum

1. Stipules and bracts calyptrate (fused into a conical cap), caducous as leaves and flowers start to expand.

     2. Plants of seasonal forest in Central America and Caribbean northern Colombia and Venezuela, and sometimes cultivated.....Calycophyllum candidissimum

     2'. Plants of wet to seasonal forest in Amazonian and south-central South America.

          3. Plants of seasonal forest, eastern Bolivia to Paraguay and nothern Argentina......Calycophyllum multiflorum

          3'. Plants of wet forest in the Amazon basin.........Calycophyllum spruceanum

1'. Stipules and bracts flat, free or partially fused at base, triangular, persistent at least shortly after leaves or flowers develop.

     4. Leaf blades 7.5-10.5 cm long; stipules 1--2 mm long; calycophylls present, with blades 3-3.5 mm long; plants of Atlantic forest in eastern Brazil (Espírito Santo)....Calycophyllum papillosum

     4'. Leaf blades  ca.14-30 cm long; stipules 5-25 mm long; calycophylls absent or present and with blades ca. 25-70 cm long; plants of Amazon basin and northeastern South America. (Semaphyllanthe sensu Andersson)

               5. Trees to 45 m tall found in the western Amazon basin; calycophylls not present......Calycophyllum megistocaulum

               5'. Trees to 15-20 m tall found in northeastern South America; calycophylls present or not.

                   6. Leaf blades pubescent on lower surface.....Calycophyllum intonsum

                   6'. Leaf blades not pubescent on lower surface.

                        7. Leaf blades acute to acuminate at apex.

                             8. Capsules 21-28 mm long; plants of Guyana......Calycophyllum merumense

                             8'. Capsules 15-20 mm long; plants of eastern Venezuela......Calycophyllum venezuelense

                        7'. Leaf blades obtuse to rounded at apex.

                              9.  Bracts subtending axes of inflorescence reduced, to 1 mm long; plants of southern Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana to central Amazonian Brazil.....Calycophyllum obovatum

                              9. Bracts subtending axes of inflorescence developed, 5-12 mm long; plants of Guyana....Calycophyllum spectabile

 
 
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