Dinizia jueirana-facao G.P.Lewis & G.S.Siqueira

Lewis GP et al. 2017. The majestic canopy-emergent genus Dinizia (Leguminosae: Caesalpinioideae), including a new species endemic to the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo. Kew Bulletin 72:48. DOI 10.1007/S12225-017-9720-7

Type

Type: Brazil, Espfrito Santo, Linhares, Reserva Natural Vale, 30 July 2004 (fl.), D. A. Folli 4889 (holotype CVRD!; isotypes HUEFS!, K!).

Morphology General Habit

Tree, 19- 40 m, unarmed, trunk 10 - 22 m before first major branching, DBH up to 1.56 m, circumference at breast height (1.40 -) 1.90 - 4.90 m, diam of crown 10 - 20 m, bark grey, frequently breaking off in large woody plates, sap clear and watery

Morphology Leaves Stipules

Stipules not seen

Morphology Leaves

Leaves (including measurements from a 10 year old, 6 m tall, planted tree), alternate to spirally arranged, bipinnate, (25.5 -)35- 96 cm long (including the petiole), eglandular; petiole 5.5 - 10 cm long, flattened on upper edge near its base, angular at the margins, ± rounded along lower edge, leaf rachis caniculate along upper margin, the channel becoming more pronounced towards the distal end; pinnae in (9 -)15- 19 alternate to sub-opposite pairs per leaf (sometimes an extra terminal pinna on one side of the rachis, the total number of pinnae per leaf thus either even or odd), 9.5 - 15.5 cm long, the proximal and distal pinnae shorter and with fewer leaflet pairs than the median pinnae, the pinna rachis caniculate along its upper edge with pronounced raised puberulent ridges on either side of the channel; leaflets alternate to subopposite, sessile, (9 -)15- 23 (- 24) pairs per pinna, their blades sub-rhombiform, coriaceous, 8 - 23 x 2.5 - 6 mm, glabrous on both surfaces, somewhat discolorous on drying, the upper surface darker and shiny, the apex rounded to very shallowly retuse, the base subtruncate to rounded, inequilateral with the distal side of the blade distinctly broader than the proximal side, blade margin entire, slightly thickened, slightly revolute, the midvein ± central, slightly prom­inent to slightly immersed on the upper surface, distinctly prominent on the lower surface, a fleshy cone-shaped pulvinus at the base of the midvein, secondary venation not visible on the upper surface,  but obscure on the lower surface

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescence an erect, terminal, large woody compound raceme, exserted from the surrounding foliage, the racemes in groups of two or more subtended by a woody, 15 - 30 cm long, densely tomentose to puberulent, rust-coloured, primary woody peduncle (the colour contrasting with the white indumentum of the leaf petioles), the individual inflorescence rachis sparsely puberulent, 28 - 35 cm long, 3 - 4.5 cm wide (in open flower), longitudinally ridged (when dry), each raceme with hundreds of pedicellate flowers (fallen flowers leaving narrowly ellipsoid sunken pedicel scars on the rachis, these occasionally filled with a small resin droplet), flowers bright yellow, hermaphrodite (although some apical flowers appearing functionally male due to suppression of gynoecium development), 8.5 - 10 mm long (from base of the robust 1.5 - 2 mm pedicel to the tips ofthe petals), a caducous, spathulate, stipitate, puberulent, 1.5 - 2 mm bract inserted on an inflorescence ridge directly below each flower pedicel, but these obscure and most evident below buds; calyx valvate in bud, the buds ellipsoid to obovoid, the broadly acute calyx lobes spreading apart in a symmetrical star shape to reveal the petals beneath, calyx of mature flowers campanulate, coriaceous, puberulent on the tube and 5 lobes, the minute white hairs especially dense on the lobe apices, the tubular hypanthium 2 - 2.5 mm long, a darkened nectarial zone at its inner base, the calyx tube c 2 mm long, the subequal lobes 1.25 - 1.5 mm; petals free, imbricate, 5.5 - 7x3- 3.5 mm, subequal (the median petal the smallest), inserted around the upper margin of the hypanthium, the slightly reflexed blade glabrous on its inner surface, moderately pubescent with white hairs over most of the outer surface, the petal margins densely ciliate, the broad claw almost as wide as the blade; stamens 10, free,c 20-­25 mm long, inserted in two whorls (one slightly higher than the other) along the upper margin of the hypanthium, glabrous, anthers uniform, dorsifixed, anther apex with a short thickened connective, anther glands lacking, staminodes lacking; ovary c 9 mm long, short-stipitate, the stipe 3 - 4 mm, inserted centrally within the hypanthium, pubescent, especially on the two lateral faces, the style glabrous and tapering to an apical, tubular, glabrous stigma

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruits scimitar-shaped, ± falcate, woody, yellowish cream to greenish when immature, maturing dark brown to black, 40 - 46 x 8.5 - 10 cm, smooth, glabrous, the upper and lower sutures thick­ened and longitudinally ridged, dehiscent along both sutures, the woody exocarp raised between the seed chambers, 13 - 15-seeded

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds black, hard (the texture of pebbles), elliptic to obovate in outline, 25 - 30x16- 19 mm, laterally compressed, sub-nitid along the margins, pleurogram lacking, the lateral surfaces minutely pitted and with a fine network of fracture lines (only visible with a x10 lens), the apical funicular attachment point 2 - 4mmlong.Pollen oblate, tricolporate, with psilate aperture membranes, c 30 pm in diam., with psilate-microperforate ornamentation, the mesocolpial areas smooth, the areas around the aperture margins more rugulate and with a higher density of perforations, the aperture margins project over the endoaperture areas, the apices of the apertures fork into indentations that almost join around the apocolpium to form a weakly syncolporate pattern

Morphology Roots

Root nodules lacking

Note

Dinizia jueirana-facao differs from its sister species D. excelsa in having leaflets in (9 -)15- 23 (- 24) pairs per pinna (vs 7 - 14 pairs), the leaflets completely glabrous (vs puberulent to glabrescent on their lower surface), its individual racemes 28 - 35 x 3 – 4.5 cm (vs 10 - 18 x 1 - 2 cm), buds ellipsoid to obovoid (vs globose), flowers 8.5 - 10 mm long (vs 4 - 5mm long), its floral bracts spathulate and caducous (vs lanceolate and often persistent), its fruit woody and dehiscent along both sutures (vs indehiscent), seeds 25 - 30x16- 19 mm (vs (10 -)14- 15x6- 7mm);and pollen in monads (vs tetrads). Dinizia jueirana-facao, as currently known, is a narrowly restricted species endemic to a small area of Atlantic forest in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo. Although a tree of shorter stature, and lacking buttresses, many of its vegetative and reproductive morphological characteristics are greater in number and/or size than those seen in its widespread Amazonian sister species, D. excelsa. D. jueirana-facao has leaflets in (9 -) 15 - 23 (­24) pairs per pinna (7 - 14 pairs per pinna in D. excelsa), the leaflets glabrous (vs puberulent to glabrescent on their lower surface), its individual racemes 28 - 35 x 3 - 4.5 cm (vs 10 - 18x1 - 2 cm) in open flower, its flower buds ellipsoid too bovoid (vs globose),itsflowers8.5-10mmlong(vs4- 5mmlong), its floral bracts spathulate and caducous (vs lanceolate and often persistent), its fruit woody and dehiscent along both sutures (vs indehiscent), its seeds 25 - 30x16- 19 mm (vs (10 -)14- 15 x 6 - 7mm), and its pollen in monads (vs tetrads). D. jueirana-facao is critically endangered and presently known from less than 25 trees in two small areas, of which only one locality is inside a protected reserve. The type collection of the new species is from one of the largest trees growing inside the reserve. The species name is taken directly from the local name, “jueirana-facao”, for the tree in Espirito Santo. In the Reserva Natural Vale, the large legume tree Parkia pendula (Willd.) Benth ex Walp. is known as jueirana- vermelha and the new Dinizia species, which has a very similar bark which breaks off in large woody plates, but much larger fruits, is locally differentiated by replacing vermelha (Portuguese for red) with facao (Portuguese for large knife or machete), because the woody fruits of D. jueirana-facao have the appearance ofa machete sheath or scabbard. According to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants (McNeill et al. 2012) an epithet can be a word in apposition (Art. 23.1) and taken from any source whatsoever (Art.23.2), but the Code does not give clear guidance on diacritical signs, just ruling (Art. 60.6) that “the [diacritical] signs are to be suppressed with the necessary transcription of the letters so modified” but without elaborating on what “necessary transcription” means beyond the cited examples, which do not include a. We thus transcribe the a as a in the specific epithet here chosen for the new species. Jueirana is thought to be derived from the Tupiword yua-rana. Yua (or Jua) is a Tupi common name for several different plant species, especially those in the Solanaceae with round, spiny fruits (Andrade 2006; Sampaio 1987). Rana in Tupi means similar to, so yua-rana or jueirana means false jua (or similar to jua), although there is little resemblance between the new legume species and any Solanaceae. A number of place names in Brazil are derived from jueirana or an orthographic variant of this.

Distribution

Dinizia jueirana-facao is currently known only from two locations, one (19°08'52.0""S, 40°05'16.4""W) in the Reserva Natural Vale in Linhares, northern Espirito Santo state, Brazil, and the second (19°05'12.1""S, 40°10'41.2""W) just outside the reserve in the surroundings of the small hamlet of Santa Luzia Sooretama.

Ecology

An emergent tree in semi-deciduous forest and mata ciliar in the Reserva Natural Vale, an area of 22,000 hectares of pristine Atlantic Forest. This is the largest protected area of semi-deciduous forest in eastern Brazil. Also known from mata de tabuleiro, in the surroundings of Sooretama, just outside the Vale Reserve. Growing at elevations of 40 - 150 m above sea level.

Conservation

There are two localities of Dinizia jueirana-facao, one within the Reserva Natural Vale and one just outside it, in the surroundings of a small settlement known as Santa Luzia Sooretama, Espirito Santo. In the Reserve only 12 adult trees are known, these distributed across an area of 42.99 hectares (UTM: 385596, 7882465). The locality outside the Reserve also has between ten and 12 trees, these dispersed over an area of 64.81 hectares (UTM: 376061, 7889162). To date, the species is only known from these two small areas, which together contain less than 25 adult trees. The species, especially outside the Reserva Natural Vale, is threatened by habitat loss as a consequence of deforestation due to urban development, agriculture, livestock farming and mining. Although one of the localities is inside a protected area, this is owned by the private mining company Vale and if the company was ever to fall on hard times the reserve could lose its protection. The species is assessed as Critically Endangered (C2a(i,ii)+D) according to IUCN criteria version 3.1 (IUCN 2012), due to its very small and restricted population, combined with an inferred continuing decline in the number of mature individuals based on its habitat deforestation rates.

Phenology

Flowering and fruiting times are poorly known and considered to be unpredictable. Collected in flower in July and October and in fruit in March, July and September. It is assumed that the large woody fruits take many months to reach full maturity.

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: threatened. Confidence: confident