font settings and languages

Font Size: Large | Normal | Small
Font Face: Verdana | Geneva | Georgia
Languages:

Nectandra membranacea

(Sweetwood)

Overview

[ Back to top ]

Interesting Facts

[ Back to top ]
 

Common Names

[ Back to top ]

Common Names in English:

Sweetwood

Description

[ Back to top ]

Family Lauraceae

Shrubs to tall trees , evergreen or rarely deciduous ( Cassytha a parasitic vine with leaves reduced to scales ), usually aromatic . Leaves alternate, rarely whorled or opposite, simple , without stipules, petiolate . Leaf blade : unlobed (unlobed or lobed in Sassafras ), margins entire, occasionally with domatia (crevices or hollows serving as lodging for mites ) in axils of main lateral veins (in Cinnamomum ) . Inflorescences in axils of leaves or deciduous bracts, panicles (rarely heads ), racemes , compound cymes, or pseudoumbels (spikes in Cassytha ), sometimes enclosed by decussate bracts. Flowers bisexual or unisexual , bisexual only, or staminate and pistillate on different plants , or staminate and bisexual on some plants, pistillate and bisexual on others; flowers usually yellow to greenish or white, rarely reddish; hypanthium well developed, resembling calyx tube , tepals and stamens perigynous; tepals 6(-9), in 2(-3) whorls of 3, sepaloid , equal or rarely unequal, if unequal then usually outer 3 smaller than inner 3 (occasionally absent in Litsea ) ; stamens (3-) 9(-12), in whorls of 3, but 1 or more whorls frequently staminodial or absent; stamens of 3d whorl with 2 glands near base ; anthers 2- or 4-locular, locules opening by valves ; pistil 1, 1-carpellate; ovary 1-locular; placentation basal; ovule 1; stigma subsessile , discoid or capitate. Fruits drupes, drupe borne on pedicel with or without persistent tepals at base, or seated in ± deeply cup-shaped receptacle (cupule), or enclosed in accrescent floral tube . Seed 1; endosperm absent.

Genera ca. 50, species 2000-3000 (9 genera, 13 species in the flora ) : pantropical , a few species also in subtropical and temperate regions

Cassytha is sometimes placed in its own family , Cassythaceae; it is here retained in Lauraceae.[1]

Genus Nectandra

Trees or shrubs , evergreen . Bark dark reddish brown [brown, or gray], smooth with small wartlike lenticels . Leaves alternate. Leaf blade pinnately veined, papery or leathery; surfaces variously pubescent ; domatia absent. Inflorescences appearing when mature leaves are present, axillary , panicles, usually many-flowered. Flowers bisexual , 5-17 mm diam.; tepals deciduous, white or greenish, equal, spreading at anthesis , with papillose hairs on adaxial surface; stamens 9, anthers 4-locular, anthers of outer 6 stamens introrse , locules arranged in arc, anthers of inner 3 stamens extrorse ; staminodes 3, very small, sometimes absent. Drupe dark blue or black, ± elongate , seated in shallow [or cup-shaped], single-rimmed cupule.

Species ca. 120: nearly all neotropical .[2]

Physical Description

Species Nectandra membranacea

Leaves mostly 10-20 cm long; without tufts of hairs in nerve axils, with veins between laterals parallel to each other, 3 ones slightly channelled on top surface; slightly sticky when crushed. Fruits often rough, swollen and appearing deformed. youngest twigs with reddish hairs Tree, 20 m , mature and secondary forest ; twigs weakly grooved , dark green heavily mottled with black; petiole to 1cm; leaves to 5 x 17 cm, elliptic , widest at or just below middle , tip acute to acuminate, base acute, somewhat decurrent and revolute , papery to leathery, U-shaped profile with down-curved midvein , lateral veins 4-6, strongly ascending , not loop-connected, pale green above, strongly expressed below and reddish, micro-pubescent, odor strong ; inflorescences to 10 cm, clustered at twig tips, much branched, bearing hundreds of flowers; flowers 2 mm, cream, tepals spreading at anthesis , white pappillose inside, outer stamens with short filaments , anthers wider than long, pollen pockets in a broad arc; fruit almost round , dark green to dull black

Habit: Tree

Biology

[ Back to top ]

Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Synonyms

Laurus membranacea Sw. • Nectandra antillana Meisn. • Ocotea globosa (Aubl.) Schlecht. & Cham. • Ocotea Membranacea • Ocotea membranacea (Sw.) Howard • Persea Membranacea

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Nectandra

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 14 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

N. coriacea (Lancewood) · N. cufodontisii (Quizarr) · N. dasystyla (Laurel Del Baj) · N. embirensis (Jigua) · N. hihua (Shinglewood) · N. japurensis (Moena Blanca) · N. krugii (Bois Doux Avocat) · N. membranacea (Sweetwood) · N. mirafloris (Aguacate De Monte) · N. olida (Guipro) · N. patens (Capberry) · N. reflexa (Moena Amarilla) · N. truxillensis (Laurel Mapurito) · N. turbacensis (Laurel Amarillo)

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Further Reading

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 26, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Henk van der Werff "Lauraceae". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Henk var der Werff "Nectandra". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012