Guatteria pittieri R.E.Fr.

124. Guatteria pittieri R.E.Fr. View in CoL — Fig. 59 View Fig ; Map 26

Guatteria pittieri R.E.Fr. (1939) 516. — Type: Pittier 531 (holo US 2 sheets), Colombia, Valle del Cauca, Córdoba, Dagua Valley, Pacific Coastal Zone , 30–100 m, Dec. 1905.

Guatteria sphaerantha R.E.Fr. (1950a) 334, pl. 1, syn. nov — Type: Cuatrecasas 17579 (holo S; iso COL 2 About COL sheets, F 2 sheets, S, US 2 sheets), Colombia, Valle del Cauca, Costa del Pacífico, Río Cajambre , Silva , 5–80 m, 5 May 1944.

Guatteria columbiana R.E.Fr. (1950a) 335, pl. 2, syn. nov. — Type: Cuatrecasas 21274 (holo S 2 sheets;iso COL 2 About COL sheets,F, S, US 2 sheets), Colombia, Valle del Cauca, Río Calima ( Chocó region ), Quebrada de La Brea , 20–40 m, 24 May 1946.

Tree or rarely a shrub 3–22 m tall, 3–40 cm diam; young twigs rather densely to sparsely covered with appressed, white hairs, soon glabrous. Leaves: petiole 4–20 mm long, 1–3 mm diam, often winged; lamina narrowly elliptic to narrowly obovate, 13–36 by 4–12 cm (leaf index 2.6–5), chartaceous, sparsely verruculose above at the base and along the margin of the veins or not verruculose, dull, dark brown to greenish above, duller and paler brown to greenish below, sparsely covered with appressed, white hairs to glabrous above, rather densely to sparsely covered with appressed, white hairs to glabrous below, base long-attenuate, apex acuminate (acumen 5–15 mm long), rarely acute, primary vein impressed above, often keeled below, secondary veins distinct, 12– 20 on either side of primary vein, raised above, smallest distance between loops and margin 1–5 mm, tertiary veins slightly raised above, reticulate. Flowers in 1–2-flowered inflorescences in axils of leaves; pedicels 25–60 mm long, 1–2 mm diam, fruiting pedicels to c. 3 mm diam, rather densely to sparsely covered with appressed, brown hairs, articulated at 0.2–0.3 from the base, bracts 3–7, soon falling, elliptic, the basal ones to c. 1 mm long, the 2 upper ones 4–6 mm long; flower buds ovoid to depressed ovoid; sepals free, broadly ovate-triangular to shallowly ovate-triangular, 3–10 by 4–8 mm, appressed, outer side rather densely covered with appressed, brown hairs; petals green, yellowish green or cream in vivo, elliptic to ovate to broadly so, 9–30 by 8–20 mm, outer side densely to rather densely covered with appressed, brown hairs; stamens 2–2.5 mm long, connective shield papillate. Monocarps 15– 60, green, maturing purple-black to black in vivo, dark brown in sicco, ellipsoid to obovoid, 8–14{–15} by 3–7{–10} mm, sparsely covered with appressed, brown hairs, apex apiculate (apiculum c. 0.5 mm long), wall 0.1–0.3 mm thick, stipes 6–20 by 0.5–1.5 mm. Seed ellipsoid, 7–14 by 3–6 mm, dull, reddish brown to brown, rugose, raphe raised.

Distribution — Colombia (Antioquia, Chocó, Nariño, Valle del Cauca), Western Ecuador (Carchi, Esmeraldas, Pichincha).

Habitat & Ecology — In montane, premontane or lowland (sometimes disturbed) forest, along margins of creeks or rivers, slopes and roadsides, on reddish yellow or yellowish grey, clayey loam. At elevations of 0–1900 m. Flowering: throughout the year; fruiting: throughout the year.

Vernacular names — Colombia:Cargadero (Monsalve B.556), Cargadero blanco (D.A. Sánchez S. et al. 883, 884A). Ecuador: Cargadera negra (Grijalva et al. 471, Méndez et al. 257, Quelal et al. 599, 603), Guasca negra (Quelal et al. 691, Tipaz et al. 1062), Ñinchu (Tipaz et al. 2488), Tetalde (Awaví name) (Grijalva et al. 471).

Uses — Ecuador: Bark used for making baskets (Quelal et al. 599, 603).

Notes — Guatteria pittieri can be recognized by narrowly elliptic to narrowly obovate leaves with long petioles and a long-attenuate leaf base. Further characteristics are the relatively long and slender pedicels up to 60 mm long.

Guatteria columbiana , G. sphaerantha and G. pittieri were treated by Sánchez S. (1987) as different species. He distin- guished between them depending on the density of verruculae and where they could be found. Verruculae are not always a constant character that can be found on the leaves in the different specimens that we have examined, making this character unreliable for separating species.

Guatteria sphaerantha , now a synonym of G. pittieri , was wrongly treated by Murillo A. & Restrepo (2000). They described it as a cauliflorous species, a character that is absent in G. pittieri , and, in addition, is rare in the whole genus. The specimens: Murillo A. & Román 605 (COAH, COL, U), Murillo A. et al. 884 (COAH, COL, U) and Gentry & D A. Sánchez S. 64984 (COAH, MO, U) belong to G. scalarinervia . These three collections are the first gatherings of this species from Caquetá, in the Colombian Amazon region. Formerly, G. scalarinervia was known from Ecuador and Peru only.

Boyle et al. 1525, 1780, 2144 (U), Palacios & Tirado 4375 (U) and Tipaz et al. 1841 (U) from Ecuador are aberrant by having erect hairs on the leafy twigs and lower side of the leaves, but otherwise they match this species very well