Tropicos | Name - Agouticarpa C.H. Perss.

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Agouticarpa C.H. Perss.

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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 9/10/2023)

Acceptance : Accepted

Note : Tribe Gardenieae

Project Data (Last Modified On 11/15/2019)

Notes:

Agouticarpa includes 7 species of Neotropical shrubs and trees found in wet vegetation, both lowland and montane forests. This genus is characterized by its woody, generally robust habit; generally strong-textured, petiolate leaves without domatia; distinctive stipules; terminal dioecious inflorescences of markedly different form; very short calyx limbs; generally fleshy, 4-7-merous corollas with convolute (contorted) lobes that are often strongly reflexed; and subglobose, fleshy, 4-locular fruits with numerous subglobose or flattened seeds. The specimens often dry with a brown color. Several Agouticarpa species are densely velutinous, hirsute, or pilosulous on vegetative and reproductive structures, while the remaining species are generally glabrous throughout. The stipules are well developed and held erect and pressed together in bud. The pistillate flowers are infrequently collected, and have not been documented for several Agouticarpa species. The stamens were described by Lorence (Flora Mesomericana) as included or partially exserted: the second description there refers to only the very tips of the anthers that are sometimes held in or just above the corolla throat. The white flowers may be nocturnal. Agouticarpa spinosa is notable in its axillary spines (technically these are modified stems and thus thorns, but Rubiaceae literature generally calls these spines and this more common terminology is used here.) Agouticarpa curviflora and Agouticarpa isernii are the most commonly collected species.

Persson (2000a, 2000b) included several species of Agouticarpa (as variously Alibertia and Genipa) in his analysis: these were placed here in the tribe Gardenieae, in his "Alibertia Group", but his analysis did not clearly indicate their relationships within that group. Bremer & Eriksson (2009) then studied the overall systematics of Rubiaceae, and did not find a single, monophyletic group that corresponded to Gardenieae. Mouly et al. subsequently (2014) reviewed Gardenieae in detail along with related groups, and separated the "traditional" Gardenieae into several new, somewhat weakly supported tribes with Stenosepala included in their new Cordiereae; this tribe corresponded generally to the "Alibertia Group" of Persson (2000c). The one species of Agouticarpa in their analysis was included in their newly separated tribe Cordiereae. Their general morphological characterization of Cordiereae included a fusiform pistillate stigma, which is apparently not found in Agouticarpa; they noted that (as with all Rubiaceae groups) several genera have exceptions to the morphological generalizations. Then Persson & Delprete (2017) reviewed the available molecular data for this group and concluded that the support for several of Mouly et al.'s tribes is uncomfortably weak, and they returned to recognizing the "traditional" Gardenieae of Persson (2000b) until this group is better understood.

The species of Agouticarpa are relatively well marked morphologically and different ecologically, but identification is often difficult because a plant in question lacks any stipules and has immature fruits. This genus shows a notable range of number of corolla lobes, which is common in the Gardenieae and related groups but shown particularly well in this clearly delimited genus. The corolla lobes are generally as long as or even a bit longer than the tube, but they are quite a bit shorter in Agouticarpa hirsuta. The fruits of several species are relatively large and fleshy, at least for Rubiaceae. The fruits of several Agouticarpaspecies differ markedly in the thickness of their fleshy walls, which suggests differences in dispersers. In particular, the fruits of Agouticarpa curviflora have a black color and quite thin walls compared to the other species without, apparently, containing more pulp.

Agouticarpa is similar to Glossostipula, which also has large fleshy fruits and obovate stipules that are erect and pressed together in bud; Glossostipula is found in Mexico and northern Central America, and can be separated by its usually longer calyx limb, 2-7 mm long and different pollen morphology (porate vs. colporate). Agouticarpa is quite similar to Alibertia, but that has triangular, elliptic, or oblong, acute, often persistent stipules that are imbricated in bud, leaves often with domatia, and subcapitate staminate inflorescences. Genipa differs in its persistent, triangular, acute stipules that are imbricated in bud, 5-merous flowers, a longer calyx limb, and exserted stamens and staminodes. Some species of Agouticarpa were previously included in Genipa, during a period when Genipa was treated as a widespread, morphologically heterogenous group from which various genera have now been separated (e.g., Bridson & Robbrecht, 1985). Sterile plants of the pubescent Agouticarpa species and especially Agouticarpa hirsuta are similar to juvenile plants of Capirona, which lose their hirsute pubescence and develop thrysiform inflorescences, calycophylls, and capsular fruits when they reach reproductive age.

Authors: C.H. Persson & C.M. Taylor.
The content of this web page was last revised on 15 November 2019.
Taylor web page: http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/taylor.shtml

Distribution: Wet lowland to montane forest at 0-2650 m, southern Central America through western South America, and one species also in central and eastern Brazil.

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Shrubs to medium-sized trees, unarmed or with axillary spines [thorns], terrestrial, without raphides in tissues, dioecious. Leaves opposite, with tertiary and quaternary venation not lineolate, without domatia; stipules interpetiolar or sometimes shortly fused around stem, deciduous, elliptic to obovate or ovate, acute to rounded, adaxially glabrous, erect and pressed together back-to-back in bud. Staminate (male) inflorescences terminal on main stems, cymose, 3-16-flowered, subsessile to shortly pedunculate, bracteate or bracts reduced. Staminate (male) flowers pedicellate in fasciulate to cymose groups, medium-sized; hypanthium narrowly cylindrical; calyx limb reduced, truncate to shallowly 4-6(7) lobed, without calycophylls; corolla salverform to funnelform, white to cream, internally glabrous, lobes 4-6(7), elliptic to lanceolate, generally shorter lthan the tube, convolute (contorted) to the left in bud, spreading to markedly reflexed at anthesis; stamens 4-6(7), anthers subsessile, included or with tips shortly exserted, narrowly ellipsoid, with triangular apical appendage, pollen 3-6-porate or -colporoidate, exine reticulate; pistillode with slender stylar portion, stigmatic portion short, 2-4-lobed, included, positioned near middle part or tips of anthers in corolla tube. Pistillate (female) flowers terminal on main stems, solitary, subtended by the terminal stipule and sometimes several stipuliform bracts; hypanthium subglobose to ellipsoid; calyx limb reduced, truncate to shallowly 4-6(7) lobed, without calycophylls; corolla salverform or funnelform, often rather fleshy, white to cream, internally glabrous, lobes (4)5-7, usually 1 more than the number of lobes in the staminate flower of the corresponding species, elliptic to lanceolate, generally shorter than the tube, convolute to left in bud, spreading to markedly reflexed at anthesis; staminodes similar to stamens (Persson, 2003: fig. 2G); style slender, stigmas 4, positioned at mouth of corolla tube next to tops of staminodes; ovary 4-locular, ovules 10-20 in each locule, horizontal on axile placentas. Fruit baccate, subglobose to ellipsoid, fleshy inside a leathery to woody pericarp, smooth to waxy and brown to yellowed or black, with calyx limb persistent; seeds irrregularly subglogose or depressed-oblong, embedded in pulp, smooth, exostestal cells smooth, elongate (5-10 times longer than wide), without thin secondary thickenings in radial walls.

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Key to Species of Agouticarpa; adapted from Persson & Delprete, Fl. Neotropica 119: 37

1. Plants with axillary spines; montane forest at 1500-2100 m, northern Peru......Agouticarpa spinosa p.p.

1'. Plants without axillary spines; lowland to montane forest, at 0-2400 m, Costa Rica through Bolivia and western Brazil.

2'. Leaf blades hirsute, velutinous, pilose, hirtellous, or strigose abaxially.

3'. Leaf blades hirsute abaxially; staminate flowers with pedicels 0-25 mm long; staminate corolla with tube funnelform, lobes 6-7, 1/4-1/3 as long as the tube; fruits hirsute; 1350-2400 m, south-central to southern Ecuador on eastern Andean slopes......Agouticarpa hirsuta

3'. Leaf blades velutinous to hirtellous, pilose, hirsute, or strigose abaxially; staminate flowers with pedicels 0-8 mm long; staminate corolla with tube cylrindrical, lobes 5-6, 1/2 as long as to about equal to the tube; glabrous; 1300-2200 m in central and western Ecuador on western Andean slopes, or 100-500 m in western Amazon basin of Ecuador and Peru, or with pedicels 0-19 mm long in lowlands of Chocó region in western Colombia.

4. Leaf blades velutinous to hirtellous abaxially; lowlands of western Amazon basin in Ecuador and Peru.....Agouticarpa velutina

4'. Leaf blades pilose, hirsute, hirtellous, or strigose abaxially; lowlands to montane forest, western Colombia to central Ecuador.

5. Staminate pedicels 0-8 mm long; at 1300-2200 m in central and western Ecuador on western Andean slopes.....Agouticarpa grandistipula

5'. Staminate pedicels 0-19 mm long; at 700-1300 m, southern Central America through western Colombia.....Agouticarpa williamsii p.p.

2'. Leaves glabrous or puberulous abaxially.

6. Leaf blades elliptic to narrowly so, papyraceous to chartaceous, with their length to width ratio 2.1-3.5:1 or sometimes 5.5:1; staminate corolla 4-lobed; mature fruit 1.2-4.5 cm in diameter, shiny and blackened, with mesocarp thin, 1-3 mm thick, and the outlines of the seeds often visible on the surface of dried fruits; widespread, at 0-1200 m, Panama to Bolivia and western Brazil....Agouticarpa curviflora

6'. Leaf blades elliptic to broadly so, papyraceous to chartaceous, subcoriaceious, or coriacedous, with their length to width ratio 1.2:1-3.5:1; staminate corolla 4-6-lobed; mature fruit 4-10 cm in diameter, brown to yellowed, with mesocarp fleshy, 8-20 mm thick, and the outlines of the seeds not visible on the outside of dried fruits; 0-2300 m, Costa Rica to Bolivia.

7. Leaf blades chartaceous, 7-20 x 3.5-8 cm; stipules sericeous adaxially; staminate flowers solitary, on peduncles 5-6 mm long; staminate corolla with tube funnelform and lobes 14-15 mm long; 1500-2100 m in nothern Peru.....Agouticarpa spinosa p.p.

7'. Leaf blades papyraceous to chartaceous, subcoriaceous, or coriaceous; stipules glabrous adaxially; staminate flowers in cymes of 3-19, on pedicels 4-19 mm long; corolla with tube cylindrical and lobes 15-35 mm long; 0-2400 m, Costa Rica to Bolivia.

8. Leaf blades obtuse to usually acute or acuminate at apex; staminate corolla usually 5-merous but sometimes 4- or 6-merous, rather thin-textured, with tube 15-28 mm long and ca. 5 mm in diameter; wet forest at 0-2400 m in the western Amazon drainage, in southern Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Boliva....Agouticarpa isernii

8'. Leaf blades rounded to obtuse, acute, or shortly acuminate at apex; staminate corolla consistently 6-merous, fleshy, with tube 22-40 mm long and 4-10 mm in diameter; wet forest at 0-2650 m in Costa Rica, Panama, western Colombia, and western to central Ecuador....Agouticarpa williamsii