Mollia lepidota Spruce ex Benth.
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Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1978. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part X. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 29: 1-288.
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Family
Myrtaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
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Species Description - Trees to about 20 m high; young twigs, buds, leafstalks, flower stalks and flower buds covered with pale yellowish scales; leaf stalks 0.5-10 m long, blades ovate elliptic, about (4-)7-12(-22) x (3-)4-6(-7) cm, base rounded to slightly cordate, apex shortly acuminate, margin entire, upper face drying dull light or darker brown, lateral nerves tiny, about 4-5 pairs, basal pair often reaching to halfway the apex of the leaf, tertiary nerves tiny, often marked by scattered rows of scales, occasionahy densely covered by scales on the upper face (subsp boliviana and other forms), veins not visible or apparent, as a tiny network with a lens, lower face dull pale ochre or glaucous, whitish, sometimes with tufts of hairs in the axils of lateral nerves, in general densely lepidote, all over covered by scales on the other parts, lateral nerves distinctly raised, tertiary nerves tiny, often most pronounced between basal lateral nerves and the leaf margins; flowers 2-8 on peduncles 2-4 mm long in the axils of leaves, flower stalks 0.5-1.5(-3) cm, buds 1.5-2 cm long, to 5 mm across at broadened upper half, calyx 2-3.5 cm long, inside slightly hairy, corolla pink or whitish, to 3-3.5 cm long, 4-6 mm wide at apex, where they have a serrate or 3-lobed margin; stamens in 5 outer phalanges of each about 25, about 2 cm long, anthers 4 mm, inner 5 phalanges about 1.5 cm long, more numerous, (sterile?), filaments at the end of anthesis free, though more or less adherent in the basal half; fruits globular, depressed at apex, valves slightly compressed or not (subsp sphaerocarpa), about 1-1.5 cm long, along the sutures sometimes with a sharp rim (subsp lepidota) seeds 4-8(-16) in a row, flattened, to 7 mm long and 5 mm wide.
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Discussion
11. Mollia lepidota Spruce ex Bentham, Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. 5(suppl. 2): 59. 1861; Schumann in Martius, Fl. Bras. 12(3): 149. 1886; Baehni, Candollea 5: 417. 1934; Ducke, Arch. Inst. Biol. Veg. 4: 50. 1938. Mollia intricata Baehni, Candollea 5: 418. 1934. Mollia boliviana Britton, Bull. Torrey Club 11: 156. 1889; Baehni, Candollea 5: 420. 1934 (treated here as a subspecies). Mollia sphaerocarpa Gleason ex J. S. Record, Trop. Woods 9: 8. 1927; Baehni, Candollea 5: 421. 1934 (treated here as a subspecies). Mollia sprucei Baehni, Candollea 5: 420. 1934 (=M. lepidota var longicuspis Spruce). Mollia lucens Baehni, Candollea 5: 424. 1934. A variable species, for the time being best to be divided into subspecies. Variations in the amount of scales on the upper face of the leaves occur, the local subsp boliviana being more numerous; however that character occurs also in some larger leaved forms of subsp lepidota. Some forms have larger corolla lobes, not distincfly 3-lobed but more or less serrate and 2-lobed at the apex, a character which goes together with slightly cordate leaf blades in some cases (Maguire et al 56732). Fruits vary from purely globular without a distinct rimmed suture, to slightly rimmed or angled or even somewhat winged. Mollia grandiflora comes nearest to the latter form. Ducke (Arch. Inst. Biol. Veg. 4: 50, 1938) called Mollia lepidota one of the most common trees in the area of lakes and rivulets of the Trombetas, Tapajoz to the Madeira and Rio Negro with water poor in sediments, according to his field experience, rather polymorphic, with various herbarium species described. He considered var casiquiarensis Baehni to be a geographic distinct race. He came across it near Marabitanas above the Rio Negro where it abounds in the river flood plain.