Lecythidaceae

Classification: This species has small, actinomorphic flowers and is more closely related to species of Allantoma than it is to the zygomorphic species of Cariniana; thus, it will soon be included in Allantoma.

Diagnosis: Cariniana decandra is characterized by slightly fissured bark; leaves usually with the widest point below the middle, entire margins, and percurrent tertiary venation; actinomorphic flowers <1.5 cm diam., the stamens inserted on the rim of a short tube, and cylindrical, costate fruits.

Habit: Trees, canopy or emergent, to 40 m tall. Trunks not or slightly buttressed.

Leaves: Leaves with petioles 10-20 mm long; blades 6-12(19) x 3-7(8.5) cm, ovate to oblong-ovate, glabrous, domatia absent; base obtuse to subcuneate, slightly decurrent onto petiole; margins entire; apex acuminate; secondary veins in 9-14 pairs, the tertiary veins percurrent.

Inflorescence: Inflorescences terminal or in axils of uppermost leaves, panicles, the rachises glabrous; pedicels absent.

Flowers: Flowers actinomorphic, 1-1.5 cm diameter; calyx lobes 5; petals 5, hooked inward at apex; androecium without hood, forming a short, actinomorphic tube, the inside of tube glabrous, the stamens 10(11), inserted on rim of tube, short alternating with long, reflexed.

Fruit: Fruits 11-13 x 3-4 cm, cylindrical, the pericarp costate.

Uses: Herbarium labels indicate that this species is utilized for its timber. The best timbers in the Lecythidaceae come from other species of the genus, e.g., C. pyriformis, C. estrellensis, and C. legalis.

Distribution: Central to southwestern Amazonian Brazil and Amazonian Colombia and Peru. See distribution map (Fig. 72) in Prance (1979).

Ecology: Cariniana decandra is mostly found in non-flooded forest.

Chromosome Number: Unknown.

Notes: There have been no observations on the pollination of this species. The unilaterally winged seeds are dispersed by the wind.

Type Citation: Arch. Jard. Bot. Rio de Janeiro 4: 153, t. 16. 1925.

Basionym: Cariniana decandra Ducke

Basionym Citation: Arch. Jard. Bot. Rio de Janeiro 4: 153, t. 16. 1925.

Type Locality: Brazil. Pará: Tapajós, Bella Vista.

Type Collection: Ducke RB 324

Types Deposited at: Holotype: lectotype, RB, designated Prance, 1979.

Other Published Figures: Ducke, A. 1925. Plantes nouvelles ou peu connues de la région Amazonienne (IV Partie). Arch. Jard. Bot. Rio de Janeiro 5: 153-154, pl. 16. Spichiger, R., et al. 1990. Contribución a la flora de la Amazonia Peruana. Vol.2, pp. 295-297, Fig. 127 – Habit, fl.,