Metrodorea

Authority

Kaastra, Roelof C. 1982. A monograph of the Pilocarpinae (Rutaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 33: 1-198. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family

Rutaceae

Scientific Name

Metrodorea

Type

Type species. Metrodorea nigra Saint-Hilaire. The name was dedicated by Saint-Hilaire to "Metrodorus Sabinus, the first man, according to Plinius, who illustrated plant descriptions." Plinius however, mentioned several Metrodori but not any Metrodorus Sabinus. Probably Saint-Hilaire had in view §135 of book XXXV of the Naturalis Historia, where Plinius mentions Emilius Paulus, who looked for an educator for his little son and who was advised to ask Metrodorus "pictor idemque philosophus, in utraque scientia magnae auctoritatis" (Schouten, Maartensdijk, in verbis).

Description

Genus Description - Terminal buds completely enveloped by the sheaths of the upper pair of leaves. Leaves opposite, 1-3-foliolate; sheaths of the leaves largely grown out distally, adnate to the branchlets at base only, the upper part cucullate, round-tipped, the inner margin densely ciliate with multicellular hairs, later on reflexing and becoming glabrous, finally falling off with the leaves; petiole present or seemingly absent, adnate to the dorsal side of the sheath, semiterete to subterete, ± canaliculate, pilose when young, becoming glabrous in age; base of leaflets unequal, venation brochidodromous. Inflorescences erect, (mostly widely) paniculate, the lower side-branchlets opposite, the upper ones alternate, the basal ones usually arising from the axil of the uppermost pair of leaves; bracts with a dorsal pseudocosta, the lower bracts caducous and sometimes leaf-like; bractlets usually subtending secondary pedicels or buds. Flowers pentamerous; calyx with a connate part up to half the length of the lobes, the lobes subseparate or subquincuncial, depressedly ovate, with a dorsal pseudocosta which originates at base of the calyx; petals valvate, the inner margin induplicate, with mostly unguiculate base and cladodromous venation; filaments accumbent between the lobes of the disc, reflexing, subulate, flattened at base, glabrous; anthers dorsifixed at middle, versatile, mucronate at apex, purplish; disc adnate to the ovary in the lower half, annular, glabrous; ovary pentalocular, carpels connate; ovules 2 per carpel; style terete or obtuse-angled. Fruits usually pentalocular subglobose capsules, with glands, glabrous, the exocarp internally prominently nerved, the loculi completely connate and provided or not with apophyses, septicidally dehiscent along the dorsal commissures, and loculicidally from the base along the sutures over the top; seeds with coriaceous testa, the chalazal area usually externally visible; embryo 1 (as far as known), punctate or not.

Distribution

Mainly Brazil, only few collections from Surinam and Bolivia (see Fig. 35B).

Suriname South America| Bolivia South America|