Flora of Dominica, Part 2 - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 77 LAURACEAE 127
Ocotea krugu
Ocofea kugii (Mez) Howard, 198156; 1988,4265.
Necrandra kugii Mez, 1889:422.-Little et al., 1974:194, pl. 331.
Nectandra discolor sensu Grisebach, 1860:282, non Nees.
Tree to 25 m; leaves tomentose, elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate,
acuminate, to 24 cm x 9 cm; flowers large, to 1 cm across, outer
and inner surfaces of perianth villous; filaments absent, anthers
pubescent; fruit ellipsoid, to 1.5 cm long.
Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Saba, Guadeloupe, and Dominica;
cited for Dominica by Grisebach (1860982) and Mez
(1889:422), based on Zmray 214 (K), a syntype.
This species is easy to recognize by its copious rusty
tomentum, but has not been recently collected on Dominica. It
has remarkably large flowers, compared to other species of
Dominica, a character shared with N. antillana Meisner that has
more appressed puberulence. The specimen at Kew has been
annotated (by C. Allen and R. Bameby) as N. globosa (Aublet)
Mez, here regarded as a misidentification.
Ocotea leucoxylon
Ocotea leucoxylon (Swam) Lanessan. 1886:158.4omez de la Man.
18891Z.-Mez. 1889:329.-Little & Wadsworth, 1964:122, pl. 48.-
Howard, 198156; 1988,4266.
Lourus ievcoxylon Swartz, 1788:65.
Oreodaphne Ieucoxylon (Swartz) Nees, 1836:413.
Laurier badinier, laurier marbre, laurier mabui.
Tree with leaves without domatia, elliptic, -12 cm x 5 cm,
obtuse to acuminate; flowers unisexual; fruits globose, the
pedicel and cupule red, swollen and often with light-colored
warts (lenticels?).
West Indies; occasional in Dominica in lowland and midland
forests to 550 m: Delices (Whitefoord 5499), La Fanchette
(Chambers 2728), Layou (Ramage s.n. at K), Marigot (Hodge
406), Morne Anglais (Nicolson 4109), Morne Couronne
(Webster 13215A), Pont Casd (Skog 1576), South Chiltern
(Stern & Wasshausen 2489), Syndicate (Whitefoord 3889),
Trafalgar Falls (Whitefoord 4598), sine loc. (Zmay 325 at
GOET, Cooper 41). Flowering June-July; fruits immature in
January-February, mature in June.
A similar species, O.floribunda, is reported from the French
Islands, but it has a different fine venation and very different
"double-rimmed" cupule.
Ocotea martinkensis
Ocofea martinkernis Mez, 1889:270.-Howard, 198 159; 1988, 4:267.
Reported to be a tall tree; leaves large (to 18 cm x 9 cm) and
with domatia (sometimes absent?) in the axils of the main
lateral veins; flowers puberulent, bisexual; the drupe described
as 2.5 cm x 1.4 cm.
Lesser Antilles; known from Dominica only from the Imray
collections cited in the original description (Zmray 135 at K,
270 at GOET, K).
Described by Fournet (1978:487) as inhabiting the dry and
rocky littoral or in hills on lava and muddy draws.
This species, supposedly distinguished by its bisexual,
pubescent flowers and the domatia, was broadly defined by
Mez, including material from Jamaica that Seems anomalous on
phytogeographic grounds. At US we have more than 12
collections from the Lesser Antilles, some with domatia and
some without, and I am unsure they represent one variable
species or more than one. The materials from Guadeloupe
(except Stehle56610) lack domatia but those from Martinique
and Grenada have domatia.
Ocotea jacquinii Mez, discussed by Fournet (1978:488) as
occurring in Guadeloupe and St. Lucia, may be confused with
0. martinicensis but Seems to have more coriaceous and
glabrous leaves with a striking elongate acumen. This is
exemplified by a photo (US) of the type from the Jacquin
Herbarium (W) collected in Martinique by Benedict Aquart, a
co-traveler with Jacquin for whom Jacquin named Aquartia in
1760. This specimen, in my opinion, served as the basis for
description and illustration (a long-acuminate leaf) of Laurus
martinicensis Jacquin (1789, Coll., 2:109, pl. 5: fig. 2). The
name Oreodaphne jacquinii Meisner (in A.P. Candolle, 1864,
15( 1): 114, "jacquini") was illegitimate as a superfluous name
when published because it included Laurus murtinicensis
Jacquin. Ocotea jacquinii Mez (1889:242, 'yacquini") is
legitimate (Art. 72, Note, ZCBN) because Mez established a
separate Ocotea martinicensis, making Jacquin's epithet
unavailable in Ocotea. However, I do not consider that Mez
was correct in separating the Aquart type (under Ocotea
jacquinii) from Jacquin's illustration (under Nectandra murtinicensis
(Jacquin) Mez, 1889:459) and regard the combination
in Nectandra as a nomenclatural synonym of 0. jacquinii.
The above, written before I saw Howard's (1981:56-57)
discussions of 0. jacquinii and kurus murtinicensis, agrees
with Howard (1988, 4:265) except the epithet should be with
double 'Y (jacquinii, not "jacquini") and the parenthetic
citation of Meisner's name should be omitted (the epithetbringing
synonym is illegitimate).
Ocotea membranacea
Ocotea membranacea (Swartz) Howard, 198159; 1988, 41267.
Laurur membranacea Swam, 1788:65.
Nectandra membranacea (Swartz) Grisebach, 1860282.
Laurier neglesse, laurier noir.
Tree to 10 m; leaves puberulent to glabrescent below, f
coriaceous, not shining, elliptic, elliptic -1anceolate or lanceovate,
acuminate, to 2.3 cm x 8.5 cm, the veins immersed
above and either elevated or immersed below; inflorescences
pubescent, flowers very small, 4-5 mm across; fruit globoid,
-1.5 cm diameter.
West Indies; in Dominica in lowland and midland rainforests
from 65-800 m: Carholm (Ernst 1943, Clyde River valley