Flora of Dominica, Part 2 - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 77 AQVIPOUACEAE-ARALIAC~AE 27
Ilex sideroxyloides
Ilex sideroxyloides (Swam) Grisebach, 1857:224.-Little et al., 1974:454, pl.
464.
Prinar sideroxyloides Swam, 1788:58.
Ilex occidentalis sensu Macfadyen. 1837204 [not as to type: nan. illeg.,
renaming of I. obcordato Swam (1788), cited in synonymy].
Ilex sideroxyloides var. occidentalis Loesener in Urban, 1899. 1 :345.
Ti citron, ti citron montaigne, bois foumi, coco poule.
Glabrous shrub to canopy tree to 3 m dbh; leaves coriaceous,
entire, of variable shape, obtuse, retuse, acute or shortacuminate
at apex; inflorescences or flowers several per axil;
hits turning red.
Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and most of volcanic Lesser Antilles;
widely distributed in Dominica from dry coastal woodlands (30
m) to summits (1400 m): north and east coast (to 200 m) from
Vieille Case to Delices-(Beard 239, 1417, Ernst 1367,1371,
1559, 1834, Hodge 3023, 3215, Stehle 6097,6392, Whitefoord
5390); interior peaks and westerly slopes from Syndicate Estate
to Soufri&re-(Chumbers 2647,2650, Cooper 191, Eggers 20,
Ernst 1108, 1166,1218, Hodge 647,1065,1407,1494, 2049,
2090,2277,2718,2850, Lloyd 482, 768, Nicolson 2093, Smith
10253, Stern & Wasshausen 25W, 2.571, Webster 13261,
13371,13371, Whitefoord 3777,4414, Wilbur 7388,8302).
This is an extremely variable species with many varieties and
forms recognized, mainly based on leaf shape and size. The
characters overlap in a large series of collections like this. Only
one seems almost worthy of comment, I. sideroxyloides f.
eggersii Loesener (1901:354), which has suborbiculate leaves
only to 3.5 cm long and is restricted to summits (Chambers
2647, Ernst 1218, Hodge 1407, 1065, Webster 13371, Wilbur
8203), but even here gradations and other collections from the
same localities suggest the taxon does not warrant recognition.
The larger-leaved and taller forms occur at lower elevations,
extending to the littoral at Vieille Case (teste Beard 141 7).
Dr. TR. Dudley advised me that he recognized two varieties
from Dominica as differentiated by the following key:
1. Flowers all or mostly solitary and axillary or borne singly
in leafless mils near base of present year’s branchlets . .
...................... var. occidentalis
1. Flowers all or mostly fasciculate and axillary . . , . , . .
..................... var. sideroxyloides
Dr. Dudley also recognizes only two specimens as I.
sideroxyloides var. occidentalis Loesener, the rest being I.
sideroxyloides var. sideroxyloides. These are Lloyd 757 (NY,
non vidi) from Imperial Road near Trois Pitons and Stehle 6398
(US) from the Carib Reserve.
The Stehl6 specimen and other Dominica specimens appear
to exhibit two aspects of flowering, at least so far as the
pistillate materials are concerned. Flowers are borne on new
shoots arising in leaf (persistent) axils of the previous years’
wood (two, even three years old). In some cases an axillary new
shoot remains short (~0.5 cm long), leafless, and bears several
flowers, giving rise to the condition called “flowers fasciculate
and axillary.” In other cases, even on the same specimen (as
Stehlt! 6398), an axillary new shoot elongates (to 10 cm),
bearing leaves without flowers at the upper end and a few,
solitary flowers, not subtended by leaves, near the base, giving
rise to the condition called “flowers borne singly in leafless
axils near base of present year’s branchlets.”
In short, I believe the situation involving solitary, leafless
flowers borne at the base of this year’s shoots is an aspect of
var. sideroxyloides rather than var. occidentalis. This does not
mean I reject var. occidentalis, defied as having solitary,
axillary flowers, only that I do not find that this variety occurs
on Dominica.
ARALIACEAE
(by R. DeFilipps)
Cultivated Polyscias cumingiana (Fresl) Fernandez-Villar,
including Polyscias filicifolia (E. Fournier) L.H. Bailey, teste
Lowry et al. (1989:7), an ornamental shrub with pinnately
compound leaves often used in hedges, was reported as used to
ease childbirth as an infusion by Adjanohoun et al. (198551,
pl. 18).
Ed. Note: Panax and its compounds (Didymopunax,
Oreopanar, etc.) have been treated in all genders. Article
76.2(a) of the ICBN states that “modem compounds ending in
... -punax, ... and other masculine words are masculine
irrespective of the fact that ... [they] were originally treated as
neuter by their authors.”
Leaves simple; flowers and fruits sessile . .. Oreopanax
1.
1. Leaves palmately compound; flowers and fruits pedicellate
......................... Schefflera
Oreopanax Decaisne & Planchon
1. Leaves entire, glabrous ............ 0. capitatus
1. Leaves palmately lobed, stellate-pubescent below
.......................... 0. dussu
Oreopanax capitatus
Oreopomx capitatus (Jacquin) Decaisne & Planchon, 1854:108.-A.C. Smith
in North Am. FI., 1944,28B:36.
Arolio copitoto Jacquin, 1760:18.
Sciodophyllum copitotum (Jacquin) Grisebach. 1860:3M.
Shrub or tree to 15 m (epiphytic?); leaves ovate; inflorescences
stellate-pubescent.
Neotropics; occasional in Dominica in midland rainforest,
450-800 m: Bells road (Whitefoord 6156), Lisdara (Hodge
2374), Morne Cola Anglais (Webster 13422), Morne Micotrin
(Ernst 1734), Syndicate (DHN!). Young flowers in March,
fruits in late June.