Ocotea brevipes Kosterm.
Creators: name: Werff, Henk Van Der
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Laurales
Lauraceae
Ocotea
Ocotea brevipes

description: 3. <i>Ocotea brevipes</i> Kosterm. (Fig. 6) <i>Notulae systematicae</i> 8: 84 (1939). TYPUS. — <b>Madagascar</b>. Pic de Farafangana, 18.IX.1926, fls, <i>Decary 5365</i> (holo-, P [P00573377]!; iso-, MO!, P [P00573375]!). DISTRIBUTION. — <i>Ocotea brevipes</i> is known only from the type from the Pic de Farafangana. PHENOLOGY. — Flowers: September, December. DESCRIPTION Small tree, to 8 m tall. Twigs angular, moderately densely pubescent when young, becoming glabrous with age; terminal buds densely pubescent. Leaves alternate,coriaceous, 3-7 × 2-4 cm, elliptic or broadly elliptic, base obtuse or acute, tip obtuse, adult leaves glabrous on both surfaces, immature leaves sparsely pubescent, lateral veins 4-7, midrib and lateral veins immersed,tertiary venation raised in very young leaves and finely reticulate, but in mature leaves immersed and indistinct; domatia absent. Petioles glabrous, 3-7 mm long, canaliculate. Inflorescences in axils of bracts or normal leaves, rather densely pubescent, 2-5 cm long, few-flowered, flowers white, 4-5 mm in diameter. Tepals 6, spreading or half-erect at anthesis; sparsely appressed pubescent outside, <i>c.</i> 2 mm long, elliptic, pubescent on inner surface; stamens 9, 4-celled, filament pubescent, those of inner three stamens with 2 large glands at the base, staminodia present, small, stipitiform, pubescent, pistil glabrous, receptacle glabrous inside.Fruits and cupule unknown. R EMARKS <i>Ocotea brevipes</i> is an inconspicuous species best recognized by its small leaves with obtuse tip and small pubescent inflorescences. In leaf size and shape it resembles <i>O. foveolata</i> Kosterm., but that species differs in having large domatia in the axils of the basal lateral veins, in less pubescent twigs and inflorescences and its longer petioles. Kostermans (1939, 1950) cited <i>Mespilodaphne madagascariensis</i> Sc. Ell. as a synonym of <i>O. brevipes</i>. Scott Elliot never published this name; he used the name <i>Mespilodaphne madagascariensis</i> Meissner. The specimen to which he applied this name, <i>Scott Elliot 2422</i>, was cited by Kostermans as a paratype of <i>O. brevipes</i>. I exclude this collection from <i>O. brevipes</i>. It differs from <i>O. brevipes</i> in having glabrous twigs and terminal buds and in having larger leaves with an acute apex. A collection from the Massif du Vohibe, S-SE of Ambositra, at high elevation (between 1600 and 1869 m) might belong here. This collection, <i>SF 23862 Capuron</i>, differs from <i>O. brevipes</i> in its appressed indument on twigs and inflorescences, its inflorescences along leafless short shoots and slightly obovate leaves. However, due to lack of more collections, we do not have a good idea of the range of variation in vegetative characters of <i>O. brevipes</i>.
description: Published as part of <i>Werff, Henk Van Der, 2013, A revision of the genus Ocotea Aubl. (Lauraceae) in Madagascar and the Comoro Islands, pp. 235-279 in Adansonia (3) (3) 35 (2)</i> on pages 242-244, DOI: 10.5252/a2013n2a5, http://zenodo.org/record/5206484
description: {"references": ["KOSTERMANS A. J. G. H. 1939. - Enumeratio Lauracearum Madagascariensium et ex Insulis Mascarenis. (Revisio Lauracearum VI). Notulae systematicae 8 (2): 67 - 128.", "KOSTERMANS A. J. G. H. 1950. - Lauraceae, in Flore de Madagascar et des Comores, Famille 81: 1 - 90, Paris."]}