Cordia superba Chamisso (1829: 474)

Melo, José Iranildo Miranda De, Paulino, Renan Da Cruz, Oliveira, Regina Célia De & Vieira, Diego Daltro, 2018, Flora of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil: Boraginales, Phytotaxa 357 (4), pp. 235-260 : 242

1.5. Cordia superba Chamisso (1829: 474) .

Shrubs or small trees, 2–8 m tall; branches scabrous to strigose, or glabrous. Leaves alternate, homomorphic; blade 6– 19 × 2.5–8 cm, chartaceous to semicoriaceous, bicolor, elliptic to obovate, apex acute to acuminate or rounded, margin entire or slightly dentate towards the apex, base cuneate, obtuse or oblique, adaxially glabrescent, abaxially puberulous to glabrescent, hispidulous to strigose on the veins, trichomes simple; petiole 0.5–1 cm long, sulcate, somewhat scabrous to hispid. Inflorescences 5–8 cm long, panicles with helicoid branches, terminal, lax; peduncle 3–6 cm long, hispidulous to scabrous. Flowers 4–5 cm long, subsessile; calyx 1.2–1.5 cm long, tubular-campanulate, scabrous, with filiform lobes 3–5 × 3–6 mm, oval, apex obtuse to slightly mucronate; corolla 3.5–4.8 cm long, infundibuliform, white, deciduous, slightly scabrous to glabrescent, lobes 0.9–1.2 × 1.5–2 cm, orbiculate, patent, plicate, apex rounded and acuminate. Stamens 5, free, filaments 1.3–1.6 cm long, pale brown, pubescent to about half their length; anthers 2.8–4 × 1.2–2 mm, oblong, apex acute. Ovary 2–3 mm long, subglobose, glabrous, nectariferous disc absent; style 1.2–1.8 cm long; stigmas 1–1.2 mm long, clavate, erect, glabrous. Drupe 1.6–2.2 × 1.2–1.5 mm, ovoid, apex apiculate, green when immature, white when mature, glabrous; seed not seen.

Notes:— The species is morphologically similar to C. rufescens , differing from it mainly by the scabrous calyx. Illustrations found in Taroda (1984) and Melo & Lyra-Lemos (2008).

Geographic distribution:— Cordia superba is endemic to Brazil, in the regions North, Northeast, Midwest, Southeast and South associated to the Caatinga, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forest Ecoregion ( BFG 2015). C7, D7.

Habitat:— Atlantic Forest in the studied area.

Phenology:— Collected in flower in February and April; in fruit in April.

Selected material examined:— BRAZIL. Rio Grande do Norte: Baía Formosa , February 2005, fl., A.R. Lourenço 34 (JPB) ; Idem , 06°22’26”S, 35°01’24”W, September 2004, fl. buds, M.R. Barbosa 3020 (JPB). Parnamirim, 05°55’45”S, 35°11’20”, 50 m, April 2013, fl. fr., P.C. Gadelha-Neto et al. 3472 (JPB) .