Aptandraceae Miers

Family Description

Distribution Map

Photographs

Anacolosa

1. Anacolosa clarkii
   
   • Series of photos.  Flowers, fruit, bark, etc. From Laos. Link goes to the BIOTIK web site.
2. Anacolosa insularis
   
   • Shoot with flower buds.  From Rare Plants of American Samoa. Photo 1976 by W. Arthur Whistler.
3. Anacolosa frutescens
   • Photos. Excellent photos of flowering specimens from the Philippines. Link goes to PhytoImages.
     
   • Photos. Go to Olacaceae and click on this species. Link goes to Plants of Southeast Asia by Ferry Slik.
   • Illustration from Flora Malesiana 10 24 1984. Link goes to Borneo Tree Images. James K. Jarvie, Beth Dart, Diane Holland.
4. Anacolosa pervilleana.
   
   • Fruiting shoots. Madagascar, Antsiranana, Ambilomagodro, 12º53'S 049º10'E. [MO specimen: Rakotonandrasana 1016 RIR]. Photos by Richard Randrianaivo. Link goes to TROPICOS.
   • Photos Prov Tuliar Parc Nat Zombitse, Madagascar. Photos 13 Jan. 2006 by C. Davidson (coll. Z. Rogers 863).  Link goes to Flora of the World.
   • Photos. Z. Rogers et al. 1157. Link goes to PhytoImages.
   • Illustration. From Capuron (1968). Note the anthers dehisce by pores along a rim, very much like Phanerodiscus and Cathedra. This conflicts with the statement by Kuijt (2015) "Neither Anacolosa nor Cathedra, both placed in Aptandraceae by Nickrent et al. (2010), share such fundamental features, having a more regular anther structure; for this reason, a systematic placement in Olacaceae remains more appropriate." Thus both morphology and molecular data (see Phylogeny below) show that Anacolosa and Cathedra are  part of Aptandraceae.

Aptandra

1. Aptandra caudata
   • Leaves of plant and Plant with flowers.  Peru, Loreto, Maynas, Explornapo Camp. Al Gentry, R. Vasquez, & N. Jaramillo (No. 54321). Link goes to TROPICOS.
2. Aptandra tubicina
   • Plant with flowers. Colombia, Caqueta. Gentry and Sanchez (No.65181). Link goes to TROPICOS.
3. Aptandra zenkeri
   
   • Photos. Province Ogooue-Ivindo, Lope National Park. Sommet Main, Gabon. Link goes to Flora of the World.
   • Fruiting plant. Each fruit has an expanded (accrescent) calyx. Ibadan, Nigeria. Slide no. 9637 archived at K, taken by J. Lowe Sept. 16, 1971.
   • Plant with fruit, photo 1, photo 2, Gabon. Photo by A. Gentry (No. 33089). Link goes to TROPICOS.
   • Fruits, Gabon. Photo by A. Gentry (no. 33530). Link goes to TROPICOS.
   • Illustration.  From Sleumer (1935).
4. Aptandra sp.
   
   • Photos.  From the Aguajal Mamule research site, Amazonas, Brazil. J. E. Househlder no. 1316. The flowers are on very long pedicels and the calyx envelops the fruit more than half its length. Likely a new species. Link goes to Atrium Biodiversity Information System

Cathedra

1. Cathedra acuminata
   • Photo1. Photo2.  Plant in fruit. Mato Grosso, Brazil.  Link goes to Neotropical Plants image database at Kew.
   • Plant with flowers, Venezuela. Photo by A. Gentry (No. 24806). Link goes to TROPICOS.
   • Fruits. Peru, Loreto. Collected by Thomas Croat (19059), Aug. 1972. Link goes to TROPICOS.
   • Photos.  Pants in flower and fruit.  Reserva Nacional Pacaya-Samiria, Loreto, Peru.  14-15 Nov. 2008. Flowers (Vasquez, Ro 34913), fruits (Vasquez, Ro 34966). Link goes to Flora of the World.
   • Herbarium specimen, showing young fruits. Labels are: 1) annular prophyll, 2) calyx, 3) base of receptacular disk - expands to cover most of drupe, 4) top of disk (base of perianth?), 5) style. Specimen from Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium (MO). Photo by D. L. Nickrent.
   • Herbarium specimen. Mature fruit. Labelling as above. Photo by D. L. Nickrent.
   • Herbarium specimen. Fruiting specimen. Photo by D. L. Nickrent.
   • SEM images of stamens. Link goes to PhytoImages.
   • Line drawing of flower dissections from material present at Kew. Note the anthers dehisce by pores along a rim, very much like Phanerodiscus. This conflicts with the statement by Kuijt (2015): "Neither Anacolosa nor Cathedra, both placed in Aptandraceae by Nickrent et al. (2010), share such fundamental features, having a more regular anther structure; for this reason, a systematic placement in Olacaceae remains more appropriate." Thus, molecular data (see Phylogeny below) and morphology both show that Anacolosa and Cathedra are  part of Aptandraceae.
     
2. Cathedra gardneriana (with Schoepfia and Tetrastylidium)
   
   • Line drawing.  Link goes to TROPICOS database at MO.
3. Cathedra sp.
   • Plant with fruits, Bolivia. Photo by A. Gentry (No. 77884). Link goes to TROPICOS.

Chaunochiton

1. Chaunochiton kappleri
   
   • A number of photos   Los Amigos Conservation Area, Rio Los Amigos, Madre de Dios, Peru. J. Janovec et al. no. 2551. Photos by John Janovec. Link goes to Atrium Biodiversity Information System.
   • Photos. Mato Grosso, Brazil.  Link goes to Neotropical Plants image database at Kew.
   • Photos. Link goes to Neotropical Live Plants, Field Museum in Chicago.
     
   • Herbarium specimen, Note the very large accrescent calyx. Specimen from Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium (MO). Photo by D. L. Nickrent.
   • At first glance the anthers appear to be valvate, with lobes of the valves hanging down along the sides of the filament. But when examined more closely, the anthers have small, nearly porose openings along the apical region.  This is similar to the condition seen in Cathedra and Phanerodiscus (see below) which have porose areas that occur along a slit-like region that marks the junction of the anther locules.  Photos by D. L. Nickrent.
2. Chaunochiton loranthoides
   
   • Herbarium specimen. The large, colorful corolla suggests the plants are bird pollinated - overall resembling Loranthaceae to a remarkable degree. Specimen from Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium (MO). Photo by D. L. Nickrent.
   • Drawing.  Flower bud, flower, two types of anthers and fruit with accrescent calyx. Figure 3-20 from Kuijt (1969) with labels added.
   • Photo of the anthers of this species.  This appears to be the anther type 2 illustrated by Kuijt (above).  Photo by D. L. Nickrent.
3. Chaunochiton sp.
   
   • Photos.  Rio Aracá Igapó research site, Amazonas, Brazil.  J. E. Householder no. 2489.  Link goes to Atrium Biodiversity Information System

Harmandia

1. Harmandia mekongensis
   • Photograph 1 and 2 of a fruiting specimen showing the red, accrescent calyx. Viet Nam.  Photos by Phan Ke Loc.
   • Photos. Excellent photos of bark, leaves, and fruit. Link goes to Flickr.
     
   • Illustration from Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak, Vol. 1. (Olacaceae, by Lesmy Tipot, 1995, E. Soepadmo and K. M. Wong, editors, Sabah Forstry Dept., Forest Res. Inst. Malaysia, Sarawak Forestry Dept.).
   • Illustration, modified from Pierre, L., 1884-1895. Flore forestiere de la Cochinchine, vol. 3: t. 264 , fig. B [Drawing by E. Delpy]

Hondurodendron

1. Hondurodendron urceolatum. A monotypic genus, recently described by Ulloa et al. (2010).  All the following photos are of plants from Parque Nacional El Cusuco in northwest Honduras. Photos of intact fruits by Jonathan Kolby.  Photos of dissected flowers and pollen by D. L. Nickrent.
   • Fruiting branch intact on small tree, clipped branch on ground, and vegetative branch showing leaf arrangement. The bark is slightly rough, shallowly fissured, and lenticellate.
   • Fruit intact and dissected. The calyx greatly enlarges upon fruiting (accrescent), completely surrounding the ovary and even projecting beyond as a flared limb. Although other neotropical Aptandraceae (Aptandra, Chaunochiton) have an accrescent calyx, theirs flare outward and do not wrap tightly around the fruit. The local people refer to this fruit as “guayabillo”, “guayabillo de montaña” or “guayaba de montaña”, all variants of “guayaba” or guava (Psidum guajava) whose fruit it superficially resembles.
   • Hondurodendron is is dioecious with extremely small unisexual flowers. These male flowers (fixed in alcohol) are less than two mm wide. The calyx is minute, tucked underneath the slightly pubescent petals with apical thickenings.  The female flowers (not shown) are of similar size.  It is an amazing that the calyx which starts out so small enlarges so much in fruit! 
   • This male flower, with the petals removed, has stamens alternating with the disk lobes.  The tiny stamens are terminated by morphologically unusual anthers where each of the three lobes dehisces apically by a longitudinal valve. Compared to other Aptandraceae, the pollen of Hondurodendron is rather unspecialized (scale bar = 6 µm). 

Ongokea

1. Ongokea gore
   • Photos.  Showing flowers and bark features. Lope National Park, Moyen-Ogooue Province, Gabon.  Photos 19 April 2006 by C. Davidson.  Link goes to Flora of the World.
   • Illustration (as O. kamerunensis, a synonym of O. gore).
   • Map, illustration, photos. From Protabase.
   • Herbarium specimen, Missouri Botanical Gardens (MO). Photo by D. L. Nickrent.
   • Fruits showing the accrescent calyx. From Agroherbinc.com.

Phanerodiscus

1. Phanerodiscus capuronii
   • Fruiting plant (fruit somewhat malformed). Madagascar, Prov. Toamasina, Ambila-Lemaitso. Photo by G. E. Schatz, [no. 3439, Schatz et al. 28 Jan 1993]. See Malécot, Schatz & Bosser (2003). TROPICOS link HERE.
2. Phanerodiscus diospyroidea
   • Photos of various parts of the plant. The flowers have a very Ximenia-like pubescence on petals! The fruit has the bizarre induvium composed of the induvial cupule nd the induvial membrane.  See Malécot et al. (2003) for details of this and other species of Phanerodiscus. DIANA, Mosorolava, Ampombiantambo, Madagascar.  Photos by Fidy Ratovoson. Link goes to TROPICOS.
   • SEM photographs of flowers rehydrated from an herbarium specimen [Capuron 11265, Ouest (Nord) Plateau Caleaire de l'Ankarund, Madagascar]. Detached petal with stamen. Note two types of dense trichomes on the inner surface of the petal.  The anther is extrorse, hence it dehisces towards the petal hairs.  Closer view of the opposite side of the anther showing the horseshoe-shaped line of pores where pollen is dehisced. Sometimes the pollen comes out of the pores in cylindrical masses, like toothpaste being squeezed from a tube! Photos by D. L. Nickrent with assistance from Hannah Banks, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
   • Photos.  Link goes to Flora of the World.

Phylogeny

• The first molecular phylogeny of Olacaceae s. lat. was by Malécot and Nickrent (2008).  A pdf file for that paper can be seen by clicking HERE.
• A reclassification of the families of Santalales was by Nickrent et al. (2010). A pdf file for that paper canbe seen by clicking HERE.
• For a fully resolved molecular phylogeny of all eight genera for the family Aptandraceae, see Ulloa et al. (2010) HERE.
• A multigene phylogeny for the order Santalales was by Su et al. (2015). A pdf file for that paper canbe seen by clicking HERE.

References