Ocotea faucherei (Danguy) Kosterm.

Werff, Henk Van Der, 2013, A revision of the genus Ocotea Aubl. (Lauraceae) in Madagascar and the Comoro Islands, Adansonia (3) 35 (2), pp. 235-279 : 250

11. Ocotea faucherei (Danguy) Kosterm.

( Fig. 5 )

Notulae systematicae 8: 79 (1939).

Mespilodaphne faucherei Danguy, Bulletin du Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, Paris 26: 551 (1920) .

TYPUS. — Madagascar. Analamazaotra , fls, Thouvenot 160 (holo-, P [ P00541559 ]! ; iso-, MO!, P [ P00541558 , P00541560 ]!, TAN) .

SPECIMENS EXAMINED. — Analamazaotra, Thouvenot 160 (MO, P,TAN) ; Fianarantsoa, Ranomafana National Park , Turk et al. 475 ( MO) .

DISTRIBUTION. — Central Madagascar, Analamazaotra and Ranomafana. The collection from Ranomafana was collected between 950 and 1150 m.

PHENOLOGY. — Flowers: March, May.

VERNACULAR NAME. — Varongy; Varongy fotsy.

DESCRIPTION

Tree to 16 m. Twigs terete or ridged, very sparsely appressed pubescent; terminal buds finely appressed pubescent. Leaves 6-15 × 2-5 cm, opposite or subopposite, firmly chartaceous, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, glabrous, the base sharply acute, the tip acute, domatia absent, the upper surface shiny, lower surface dull, lateral veins 6-9 on each side, tertiary venation laxly reticulate, weakly raised. Petioles 1-1.5 cm long, canaliculate, glabrous. Inflorescences 4-7 cm long, paniculate-cymose, minutely and sparsely appressed pubescent. Flowers 4-5 mm in diameter; tepals 6, half-erect, equal, 2 mm long, sparsely pubescent outside, finely pubescent inside; stamens 9, all 4-celled, c. 1.5 mm long, the inner three with the filaments united, glands present at the base of the inner stamens; staminodia not seen. Pistil glabrous, 2.5 mm long, stigma discoid; receptacle shallow, glabrous inside. Fruit and cupule unknown.

REMARKS

Ocotea faucherei can only be recognized by the fused filaments of the inner stamens. The tepals remain half-erect at anthesis, in contrast to other species where the tepals are spreading to sometimes reflexed.Vegetative characters defining this species have not been found, which makes identification of fruiting or sterile specimens very difficult. Although the type comes from a relatively well collected locality, this species has only been once collected at this site. There is a second collection from the Ranomafana National Park. This species differs only from the variable O. racemosa in the fused filaments of the inner stamens and I am not sure this is really a good character. Two other collections from Perinet were annotated by Kostermans as O. faucherei , one in bud (SF 12886) and one sterile (SF 10941). Without good flowers it is not possible to confirm these identifications and I place these collections in O. racemosa .

Figures

FIG. 5. — Distribution of Ocotea faucherei (Danguy) Kosterm. (N), O. humbertii Kosterm. (p), O. humblotii Baill. (l), O. involuta Kosterm. (Ì) and O. zahamenensis van der Werff, sp. nov. («).