Tovomita morii Maguire

41. Tovomita morii Maguire View in CoL in Phytologia 39: 76. 1978. – Holotype: Panama, Panamá, El Llano-Cartí road, 12.7 km from Inter-American highway, 350 m, 15 Feb 1975, S. A. Mori & J. Kallunki 4685 (MO [ MO194882 ] photo!; isotypes: NY [ NY00076042 ]!, PMA [ PMA1160 View Materials ] photo!).

Description — Trees up to 15 m tall, prop roots inconspicuous; exudate yellow, abundant. Leaves sessile to subsessile, petioles <5 mm long when present, smooth, green, lenticels absent. Leaf blades 18–30 × 10.6–14.6 cm, light brown in sicco, black dots absent, coriaceous, broadly elliptic to obovate, base cuneate, apex rounded, rarely straight; papillae, lenticels and fungal spots absent; exudate canals inconspicuous. Venation: secondary veins 12– 14 pairs, 12–32 mm apart from each other, forming angle 60°–75° to midvein, strongly prominent abaxially, prominent adaxially, arcuate and connecting near margin; intersecondary veins absent; tertiary veins percurrent sinuous; intramarginal vein present. Inflorescences: ♂ lax cyme with 3 basal branches and up to 27 flowers, lacking terminal flowers, ♀ dichasium, lenticels present or not. Pedicels c. 18 mm long, green, distal portion dilated, proximally articulated or not in lateral flowers of dichasia; calyptrae absent, lenticels present or not. Floral buds c. 10 mm long, spheroid, apex rounded, lenticels absent. Sepals 2, c. 8 × 8.5 mm, circular, apex rounded, greenish; petals 2, 8.5–12 × 8.5 mm, circular, apex rounded, greenish. Staminate flowers not seen. Pistillate flowers: staminodes 50–60, 3–4 mm long, filaments dorsiventrally compressed, coloration not seen; ovary c. 5 mm long, 5-locular, not costate, 5-lobed; stigmas 5, sessile, c. 3.5 mm in diam., coloration not seen. Capsules fleshy, 3.9–5.1 × 2–4.5 cm, 5-septate, spheroid when closed, not costate or lobed, rostrum absent, epicarp asperous, lenticels present, green-brownish when immature and mature, mesocarp coloration not seen; sepals, petals and staminodes caducous, stigmas persistent. Aril coloration not seen.

Distribution — Colombia (Chocó, Valle del Cauca), Ecuador (Esmeraldas), Panama ( Panamá). Fig. 66.

Conservation status — Data Deficient (DD, Marinho & Beech 2019).

Recognition and discussion — Tovomita morii can be easily recognized by sessile to subsessile leaves (petioles <5 mm long), which are also found only in T. auriculata . These two species also share the 5-carpellate ovaries and fruits with asperous epicarp. These two species can be differentiated, even when sterile, by the broadly elliptic to obovate leaves in T. morii vs spatulate in T. auriculata , in addition to the number of secondary veins (12–14 vs 19–22 pairs in T. auriculata ).

Maguire had only pistillate specimens with fruits and senescent flowers to describe Tovomita morii . The author described the species as having four sepals (the common pattern in the genus), but he did not refer to the number of petals. During the analysis of other specimens, we noticed that T. morii bears flowers with a single pair of sepals and one pair of petals, a unique feature in the genus. Unfortunately, we did not have access to a staminate specimen to confirm if this perianth pattern is also observed.

Specimens examined — COLOMBIA: CHOCÓ: Pan America Highway, c. 10 km W of Las Animas , 100 m, 12 Jan 1979, fr., A . Gentry & E . Renteria A . 24073 ( NY!); Quibdo-Tutunendo road c. 3 km W of Tutunendo, 05°46'N, 76°35'W, 8 Jan 1981, fr., A GoogleMaps . Gentry & al. 30349 ( NY!); 6–10 km E of Quibdo on road to Tutunendo , 180 m, 12 Jun 1982, fl., A . Gentry & J . Brand M . 36735 (NY!). VALLE DEL CAUCA: Bajo Calima, concesión Pulpapel / Buenaventura, 03°55'N, 77°W, 100 m, 20 Dec 1984, fr., M GoogleMaps . Monsalve B . 654 (F photo!, NY!). — ECUADOR: ESMERALDAS: Awá Indigenous Territory, Community of Mataje , 01°15'N, 78°40'W, 225 m, 31 Oct 1994, fr., A GoogleMaps . Ortiz & al. 35 ( NY!) .