Ocotea brevipes 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 : 242-244

3. Ocotea brevipes Kosterm.

( Fig. 6 )

Notulae systematicae 8: 84 (1939).

TYPUS. — Madagascar. Pic de Farafangana , 18.IX.1926, fls, Decary 5365 (holo-, P [ P00573377 ]! ; iso-, MO!, P [ P00573375 ]!).

DISTRIBUTION. — Ocotea brevipes 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, c. 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

Ocotea brevipes is an inconspicuous species best recognized by its small leaves with obtuse tip and small pubescent inflorescences. In leaf size and shape it resembles O. foveolata 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 Mespilodaphne madagascariensis Sc. Ell. as a synonym of O. brevipes . Scott Elliot never published this name; he used the name Mespilodaphne madagascariensis Meissner. The specimen to which he applied this name, Scott Elliot 2422, was cited by Kostermans as a paratype of O. brevipes . I exclude this collection from O. brevipes . It differs from O. brevipes 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, SF 23862 Capuron, differs from O. brevipes 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 O. brevipes .

Figures

FIG. 6. — Distribution of Ocotea brevipes Kosterm. (N), O. fo- veolata Kosterm. (p), O. longipedicellata van der Werff (l) and O. sessiliflora Kosterm. (Ì).