Title: A New Species of Ocotea (Lauraceae) from the Serra do Espinhaço, Brazil
Abstract:Ocotea oppositifolia, from the Serra do Espinha<;o, Bahia-Minas Gerais, Brazil, is de¬ scribed as new.It can be distinguished from the other neotropical species in the genus by the com¬ bination of it...Ocotea oppositifolia, from the Serra do Espinha<;o, Bahia-Minas Gerais, Brazil, is de¬ scribed as new.It can be distinguished from the other neotropical species in the genus by the com¬ bination of its opposite leaves, pit domatia, and double-rimmed cupules.Ocotea, with more than 300 species, is one of the larger genera of Lauraceae and is known from the Neotropics, Madagascar, and tropical Africa.It is the largest genus of Lauraceae in the Neotropics, distributed from Mexico to Argentina.According to van der Werff (1991), the genus is extremely vari¬ able and sometimes thought to be a catchall for lesser known neotropical laurels.The species of this genus are characterized by the paniculate or racemose inflorescences, six equal tepals, nine sta¬ mens, anthers with four pollen sacs arranged in two rows, two small, globose glands at the base of each innermost stamen, and fruits with fiat or cup¬ shaped cupules.Nearly all the neotropical species of this genus have alternate or clustered leaves.However, some collections from Brazil were re¬ cently discovered to have opposite leaves.Some of these are treated as Ocotea sp. in van der Werff (1995).Besides the opposite leaves, the specimens have pit domatia and double-rimmed cupules, and the combination of those characters distinguishes them from all the other neotropical Ocotea species.Read More