''Qualea parviflora'', known as ''pau-terra'' in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, is a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

indigenous to

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

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 ...

, and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. The tree favors dry climates like the tropical savanna of the

cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are t ...

Description

''Qualea parviflora'' grows up to tall. It flowers between September and December. Each flower as one light purple petal, a single stamen, a spurred calyx, and a three-parted ovary. ''Pau-terra'' can be distinguished from a close relative ''

Qualea multiflora ''Qualea multiflora'' is a species of tree in the family Vochysiaceae. Trees in this species can grow up to 6 m tall. The species has hairy leaves and extrafloral nectaries which possibly help reduce herbivory. Q. multiflora gets pollinated by ...

'' by its smaller flowers.

Ecology

The flowers are pollinated by bees. The seeds are eaten by buprestid

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s and small

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

species.

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

s of the dalcerid moth ''

Dalcera abrasa ''Dalcera abrasa'' is a moth in the family Dalceridae. It is found in Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. The habitat consists of tropical wet, tropical moist, tropical dry, tropical premontane wet, ...

'' feed on ''Quaela parviflora''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15336649 parviflora Plants described in 1826