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(Last Modified On 11/13/2012)
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(Last Modified On 11/13/2012)
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Species
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LICANIA ARBOREA Seem.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Bot. Voy. Herald, 118, PI. 25. 1852-53.
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Synonym
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Licania Seleriana Loes. Verh. Bot. Ver. Brandenb. 53:55. 1911.
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Description
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Tree to 10 m. tall (or sometimes up to 30 m., according to Standley) with broad stiff blunt, oval or oblong leaves; juvenile foliage, branchlets and inflorescence conspicuously yellowed, very densely hirsutulous with short erect or somewhat matted tawny hairs; branches and upper surface of mature leaves glabrate, the lower leaf-surfaces strongly whitened with a closely felted tomentum; branchlets stout, often 3-6 mm. in diameter at the base of the inflorescence, the bark reddish- brown with inconspicuous pale lenticels. Leaf-blades coriaceous, ovate to elliptic or oblong, broadly rounded at apex, obtuse or (usually) subcordate at base, 5-12 (-15) cm. wide, 6-18 (-25) cm. long, usually 1.4-1.7 times as long as wide, lustrous and glabrous above; lateral veins about 12-15 pairs, widely divergent, the 3-5 proximal pairs much closer together than the others, all raised and forming conspicuous ribs on the lower surface; petioles stout, 5-10 mm. long, 2-3 mm. in diameter; stipules 1-1.5 cm. long, 1-2 cm. wide, linear, acute, appressed, on shoots
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Habit
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Tree
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Description
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only. Flowers essentially sessile, very many together in axillary and terminal panicles at the tips of branches, forming an inflorescence often up to 40-50 cm. long and nearly as broad, with widely divergent branches; petals white, hirsute, oblanceolate or obovate, often about 1.5-2 mm. long and half as wide, obtusely pointed at apex, cuneate at base; stamens about 20 (the anther-bearing ones 10 or fewer), the filaments up to about 3 mm. long, hirsute, their bases coherent into a cylinder and inserted with the calyx, the sterile ones often short and inconspic- uous; anthers about 0.5 mm. long; hypanthium deeply cup-shaped, about 1.5-2 mm. wide and high in anthesis, tomentose within, usually contracted toward apex and surmounted by the 5 erect or converging calyx-lobes which are triangular, acute, about 1-1.5 mm. wide and long; ovary sessile at the bottom of the hypan- thium, nearly globose, about 1 mm. long, hirsute; style about 2.5 mm. long, subulate, hirsute except for the distal 0.5 mm. which is slender, terete, and glabrous; stigma terminal, slightly flattened. Fruit (said by Seemann to be black) obovoid or oblong-obovoid, 2-3 cm. long or larger, rounded at tip, substipitate, glabrate.
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Distribution
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Western Mexico (Guerrero) to Panama, lowland, often in dry brushy forest; Colombia.
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Specimen
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CANAL ZONE: Chiva-Chiva trail, Red Tank to Pueblo Nuevo, Piper 57I3, 5738; old Las Cruces trail between Fort Clayton and Corozal, Standley 29089. COCLE: north rim of El Valle de Ant6n, Allen I74I; Penonome and vicinity, Williams 338. CHIRIQUI: David, Pittier 284I. PANAMA: Sabanas, Bro. Paul 290; Corozal road near Panama', Standley 26847; Matias Hernandez, Standley 28952; between Matias Hernandez and Juan Diaz, Standley 32007.
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Note
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The large seed of this species is said to contain about 30 percent of oil, and to burn readily. The oil is similar to that produced commercially from the seeds of a closely related species, Licania rigida Benth., of Brazil. The type specimen of Licania arborea was collected by Seemann between Tole and David, in what is now the Province of Chiriqui.
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