''Pseudoxandra leiophylla'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the family Annonaceae. It is native to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Ludwig Diels Dr. Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Prit ...

, the German botanist who first formally described the species using the

basionym In the scientific name of organisms, basionym or basyonym means the original name on which a new name is based; the author citation of the new name should include the authors of the basionym in parentheses. The term "basionym" is used in both botan ...

''Unonopsis leiophylla'', named it after its smooth (Latinized form of Greek , leîos) leaves.

Description

It is a tree reaching 4 to 25 meters in height. Its shiny leathery leaves are 10-20 by 4-7 centimeters and come to a point at their tips. The leaves are hairless on their upper and lower surfaces, but can have warty bumps. The leaves are dark brown, greenish brown or black-brown above and brown or dark brown on their underside. Its petioles are 2-8 millimeters long. Its flowers are solitary or in pairs and axillary. Each flower is on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

1-5 millimeters long. Its flowers have 3 oval-shaped

sepals A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

that are 2-5 by 4-7 millimeters. The sepals are hairy when young, but smooth when mature. Its 6 petals are arranged in two rows of 3. The outer petals are white, 7-12 by 7-8 millimeters, and concave. The outer petals are densely hairy on their outer surface. The inner petals are white, 5-9 by 4-5 millimeters, and concave. The inner petals are smooth on their outer surface except for a densely hairy patch running from the tip to the base. It has numerous

stamens The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

that are 1.5-3 millimeters long. Each flower has 2-15 monocarps that are yellow, brown, red or black at maturity and 9-14 millimeters wide. Its shiny brown seeds are 4-9 by 7-9 millimeters.

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''P. leiophylla'' is shed as permanent tetrads.

References

External links

* Flora of Brazil Flora of Colombia Flora of Venezuela Plants described in 1937 leiophylla Taxa named by Robert Elias Fries {{annonaceae-stub