Revisional study of neotropical Beilschmiedia species (Lauraceae ...

occurs in the species with fruit pedicels constricted, but rarely it occurs even in the species
with fruit pedicels not constricted like B. brenesii. And a few species which have the fruit
pedicels constricted, like B. mexicana and B. pendula, do not have different texture or color
between the pedicels and axis because the infructescences are not covered with lenticels at
all.
Anatomy
Wood anatomy. A comprehensive study on secondary xylem and bark of Lauraceae was
made by Richter (1981). According to him, Beilschmiedia species, not only neotropical ones
but also palaeotropical ones, share the following characters of wood anatomy with most of
the other Lauraceae genera; vessels diffuse and not solitary, intervascular pitting alternate,
tyloses present in heartwood, fibers librifom1 and arranged in radial rows, and parenchyn1a
para tracheal.
Richter (1981) recognized three large groups of the Lauraceae genera in wood
anatomical characters, one of which includes Beilschmiedia, Endiandra, Potameia,
Triadodaphne, Cryptocarya and Ravensara. They are usually distinguished from the other
genera by the following characters (some characters are only partly true or exceptional in
Cryptocarya and Ravensara); vessel perforations exclusively simple, fibers non-septate,
relatively large and conspicuously bordered, parenchyma more or less vasicentric in
combination with multiseriate tnarginal bands, rays heterogeneous and comprise uniseriate
and multiseriate rays, vessel-ray pits extremely variable.
A character which is generally restricted to South American and West African
Beilschmiedia species (and only occasionally Endiandra) is presence of tyloses in fibers
(Richter in Metcalfe 1987).
Leaf anatomy. Leaf anatomy of neotropical Beilsch1niedia species are investigated in the
third chapter of this study. See the chapter for details.
Reproductive anal01ny. En1bryology and pericarp anaton1y of Beilschmiedia had never been
studied before Heo (1995). In his study of reproductive structures and phylogeny of
Lauraceae, Heo (1995) observed eight species of Beilschmiedia, five of which were
neotropical (three samples of the neotropical species are misidentified, i.e., Haber 9846
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