Lecythidaceae

Classification: Cariniana domestica is very similar to C. rubra and may be conspecific with it. Both species have small zygomorphic flowers, red petals, and reticulate tertiary venation.

Diagnosis: Reticulate tertiary venation; flowers zygomorphic, <2 cm diam., petals red or reddish-orange; androecial tube pubescent inside, stamens >50, and fruits 5.5-7 cm long.

Habit: Trees, 8-35 m tall. Trunks not buttressed. Bark fissured.

Leaves: Leaves with petioles 5-10 mm long; blades 6-12 x 4-6.5 cm, ovate to elliptic, glabrous, sometimes a few trichomes on midrib on both sides, domatia present, these in axils of secondary veins and very small; base obtuse to rounded; margins minutely crenulate (use hand lens); apex acuminate; secondary veins in 17-24 pairs, the tertiary veins reticulate.

Stipules: Stipules absent, at least in adult trees.

Exudate: Exudate absent.

Inflorescence: Inflorescences terminal or in axils of uppermost leaves, panicles, the rachises sparsely puberulous; pedicels 0.5-1 mm long.

Flowers: Flowers zygomorphic, 1-1.5 cm diameter; calyx lobes 6; petals 6, flat at apex, usually red or reddish-orange; androecium extended on one side, cream colored or pale yellow externally, the stamens >50, inserted all over inside surface of androecium, the inside of androecium pubescent.

Fruit: Fruits 5.5-7 x 3-4 cm, narrowly conical, the pericarp not costate or obscurely costate.

Uses: Species of Cariniana provide valuable timbers.

Distribution: Distribution (map): Southern Amazonian Brazil into the planalto of Brazil, Amazonian Peru and Bolivia (see map in Prance, 1979, fig. 69). and the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil.

Ecology: Terra firme forests.

Chromosome Number: Unknown.

Notes: Flowers have been collected from Dec to Jan and fruits in Jul in Bolvia and flowers from Aug to Jan with a peak in Oct and Nov and fruits from Jan, Jun, Jul, and Sep in Brazil. Only two collections are known from Peru, one is a flowering collection made in Jan and the other a fruiting collection with seeds gathered in Jun.

Type Citation: Trans. Linn. Soc. London 30: 286, t. 63, fig. 4-5. 1874.

Basionym: Couratari domestica Mart.

Basionym Citation: Flora 20 (Beibl.2): 127. 1837.

Type Locality: Brazil. Mato Grosso: Cuiabá.

Type Collection: Silva Manso s.n.

Types Deposited at: Holotype: BR; Isotypes: FI, G. LE, M, NY, P, W, fragment K

Other Published Figures: Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21: 236-237, Figs. 66B, 72.