Hylenaea comosa Miers

Species

Angiosperms > Celastrales > Celastraceae > Hylenaea

Characteristics

Large liana (rarely a tree with scandent branches); young twigs with reddish or purplish, peeling bark. Petiole stout, rugose, 5-14 mm long; blades chartaceous to subcoriaceous, elliptic to oblong-ovate, 9-26 x 5-12 cm, margins entire, slightly revolute, apex gradually acuminate, base rounded or subcordate; primary vein prominent on both surfaces, yellowish in dried leaves, secondary veins 7-10 per side, also yellowish, prominulous above, prominent below, widely arcuately ascending, tertiary veins densely reticulate, prominulous on both surfaces. Panicles axillary, often in groups of 3-8, and terminal, (2-)4-14 cm long; peduncle 0.5-2.5 cm long, lateral branches slender, numerous, several times irregularly branched, resulting in a hair-like mass of capillaceous branchlets, bearing flowers laterally and a single distal one; pedicels very slender, ca. 1 mm long. Flowers very numerous, most of them abortive, normal ones 1.5-2 mm diam.; sepals membranous, deltoid to lanceolate, 0.4-0.6 mm, entire; petals spreading at anthesis, yellowish or greenish yellow, membranous, elliptic-oblong, 0.8-1.2 x 0.4-0.7 mm, dark-veined, entire; disk 0.6-0.8 mm diam., 0.1-0.2 mm high; stamens erect to reflexed, filaments 0.3-0.4 mm long, anthers ca. 0.1 x 0.2 mm; ovary 0.4 mm diam., ovules 4-6 per locule, style 0.2-0.3 mm long. Fruit large, glaucous green; mericarps elliptic, 8-10 cm long, 4.5-7.5 cm wide, 1-1.5 cm thick, rounded or emarginated at apex, obtuse and swollen at base, (lanceolate when seeds are abortive), pericarp coriaceous, coarsely costate, ca. 1 mm thick, not involute; seeds chestnut brown at maturity, often abortive, embryoniferous part more or less ellipsoid, to 4-8.5 x 1.5-2 cm, smooth, but coarsely granular along raphe, basal wing thin-coriaceous, narrow alongside embryo, gradually widening towards base, ca. 5 x 3.5 cm, variable.
More
A liana or creeper. It can be a slender tree with climbing branches. The leaves are opposite. The flowers are often grouped into clusters of 3-8 in the axils of leaves and on the ends of small branches. These are 7-20 cm long. There are many flowers. The fruit is a capsule made up of capsules that spread out. These are attached to large swollen stalks. They are 8-10 cm long by 5-7 cm wide and 1-2 cm thick. They are green. There are 2-4 seeds. These are brown and oval. They are 4-7 cm long by 2.5 cm wide. They are edible.
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Growth form tree
Growth support climber
Foliage retention deciduous
Sexuality hermaphrodite
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Environment

A tropical plant. It grows in forests near rivers.
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Hardiness (USDA) 10-12

Usage

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Edible nuts seeds
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Cultivation

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Distribution

Hylenaea comosa world distribution map, present in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Haiti, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

Conservation status

Hylenaea comosa threat status: Least Concern

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:161663-1
WFO ID wfo-0000726890
COL ID 6MN2X
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID 733422
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Salacia capilliflora Hippocratea crinita Hylenaea capilliflora Hylenaea comosa Hippocratea comosa