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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 5/24/2013)
 

Flora Data (Last Modified On 5/24/2013)
Family HUMIRIACEAE
Contributor ALWYN H. GENTRY
Description Trees. Leaves alternate, simple, more or less coriaceous, entire or serrate, often glandular punctate near margin on underside, stipules small, deciduous or lacking. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, paniculate. Flowers perfect, actino- morphic; the sepals 5, persistent, thick at base and thinner toward margin, more or less connate into a tube or cupule; petals 5, often deciduous, free, white, greenish, or yellowish white, rarely red; estivation cochlear or quincuncial; stamens numerous or 10-30 and 1-2 seriate, the filaments of alternating lengths, connate at the base, the anthers with 2 bilocular, longitudinally dehiscing thecae or with 4 or 2 unilocular thecae dehiscing by detachment, the connective thick, usually produced as an apiculate or linguiform appendage, staminodia occa- sionally present, these resembling the filaments but smaller; pollen grains 3- colporate or 4-colporate; disc free, intrastaminal, cupular and surrounding the ovary, dentate, laciniate, or composed of 10-20 free scales; pistil 5-carpellate (rarely with 4, 6, or 7 carpels), the ovary ovoid or ellipsoid, sessile, with axile placentation, each locule 1 or 2 ovulate, the style erect, usually as long as the stamens or shorter, the stigma more or less capitate, usually 5-lobate, the ovules anatropous. Fruit drupaceous, often large, the exocarp pulpy to fibrous, cori- aceous, endocarp woody, usually very hard, with many resin-filled, round cavities, rarely spongy woody, (4-) 5 (-7) -septate, usually with only 1-2 seeds developed, with as many longitudinal opercula or valves as carpels, often with subapical foramina; seeds oblong, often adherent to endocarp, the embryo straight or slightly curved, the cotyledons oblong or ovate, often subcordate at base, the endosperm fleshy and oily.
Habit Trees
Note A tropical family with 8 genera and 50 species in the neotropics and a single disjunct species of Sacoglottis along the West African coast. Species of the family are important constituents of the neotropical rain forest and are occa- sionally also found in savanna or caatinga formations. A number of fossils are known. The wood of this family is hard and locally used in construction. The bark and wood of some species of Humiria produce the "umiry-balsam" or "umiri" of commerce, and the exocarp of the fruits of some species is edible. The exo- carp and seeds of many species are rich in a fatty oil which is sometimes used in the domestic economy of Amazonia.
Note In Panama all species of Humiriaceae are large (often to 30 or 40 m) forest trees which occur only in well-drained areas below 500 meters altitude. All Panamanian collections of the family have been made since 1970. Despite the paucity of collections, some species of this family are rather common and may be the most dominant element of lowland wet forest in parts of Panama. The Pan- amanian species can usually be recognized in the field by an unbranched trunk with rather smooth, often minutely-flaky, dark-reddish-drying outer bark, red inner bark, and a dense rounded crown with dark green leaves. The endocarps of fallen fruits may be present on the ground for a year or more and often cover the ground beneath large trees. Members of this family are restricted to the Holdridge system tropical wet forest and premontane wet forest life zones in Panama and may be used as indicator species for these life zones.
Reference Cuatrecasas, J. A taxonomic revision of the Humiriaceae. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 35: 24-214. 1961.3
Key a. Stamens 50-180; anthers with 2 bilocular thecae; endocarp with 5 separated lingulate valves extending most of its length ...... 3. Vantanea aa. Stamens 10-30; anthers with 2 unilocular, free thecae; endocarp with the valves broad and adjacent or short and opercular. b. Stamens 10; anther thecae inferolateral; endocarp inconspicuously grooved, not foraminate at apex  ...... 2. Sacoglottis bb. Stamens 20; anther thecae basal; endocarp conspicuously 5-foraminate at apex ...... 1. Humiriastrum
 
 
 
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