Richeria grandis explained

Richeria grandis is a tree species in the family Phyllanthaceae which ranges from the Lesser Antilles to South America.[1] The species is reputed to have aphrodisiac properties.[2]

Description

Richeria grandis is a large, evergreen tree with brown bark and a brownish-orange inner bark. It has simple, alternate leaves with an entire margin. The leaves are large,[3] generally 10cm-20cmcm (00inches-10inchescm) long[4] up to 30cm (10inches) long and 13cm (05inches) wide.[3] The species is dioecious—male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. The male inflorescences are 3cm-10cmcm (01inches-00inchescm) long with 3-7 flowers; the female inflorescences are 3cm-5cmcm (01inches-02inchescm) long. The fruit is a capsule, about 1cm (00inches) long.[4]

Taxonomy

The species was first described by Martin Vahl in 1797.[1] The species was placed in the Euphorbiaceae, but that family was split up after molecular work showed that the family was polyphyletic. Richeria was moved into a new family, the Phyllanthaceae, when the subfamily Phyllanthoideae was elevated as a result of this split in the Euphorbiaceae.[5] [6]

Ecology

Richeria grandis is a common species in montane forests in parts of the Caribbean and South America.[7] [8] Ariel Lugo and colleagues reported that the species suffered higher levels of damage than most trees after Hurricane David hit the island of Dominica in 1979.[9] The species is an aluminium accumulator, and is capable of accumulating as much as 15,000 ppm of aluminium in its leaves.[8] The plant was able to tolerate the potentially toxic levels of aluminium primarily by depositing the metal in the cell walls of its leaves.[10]

The polypore Porogramme richeriae was described based on collections from the trunk of R. grandis in Guadeloupe.[11]

Uses

Richeria grandis is one of several species including Parinari campestris and Roupala montana which known by the common name bois bandé. These species are reputed to have aphrodisiac properties.[2]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro. Mark T. Strong . Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. Washington, DC. 2012. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany. 98.
  2. Book: Winer, Lise. Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago: On Historical Principles. McGill-Queen's University Press. Montreal. 2009.
  3. Book: Marshall, R.C.. Silviculture of the Trees of Trinidad and Tobago, British West Indies. Oxford University Press. London. 1939.
  4. Book: Macbride, J. Francis. Flora of Peru. Field Museum Press. 1951. Botanical Series, Field Museum of Natural History. XIII, Part IIIA, Number 1. 48–49.
  5. Wurdack. Kenneth J.. Petra Hoffmann . Rosabelle Samuel . Anette de Bruijn . Michelle van der Bank . Mark W. Chase . 2004. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of Phyllanthaceae (Phyllanthoideae pro parte, Euphorbiaceae sensu lato) using plastid RBCL DNA sequences. American Journal of Botany. 91. 11. 1882–1900. 10.3732/ajb.91.11.1882 . 21652335. free.
  6. Wurdack. Kenneth J.. Charles C. Davis . 2009. Malpighiales phylogenetics: Gaining ground on one of the most recalcitrant clades in the angiosperm tree of life. American Journal of Botany. 96. 8. 1551–1570. 10.3732/ajb.0800207. 21628300. 23284896 .
  7. Book: Beard, John S.. The Natural Vegetation of Trinidad. The Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1946. Oxford Forestry Memoirs.
  8. Cuenca. Gisela. Rafael Herrera . Ernesto Medina . 1990. Aluminium tolerance in trees of a tropical cloud forest. Plant and Soil. 125. 2. 169–175. 10.1007/bf00010654. 7804414.
  9. Lugo. Ariel E.. Milton Applefield . Douglas J. Pool . Robert B. McDonald . 1983. The impact of Hurricane David on the forests of Dominica. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 13. 2. 201–211. 10.1139/x83-029.
  10. Cuenca. G.. R. Herrera . T. Mérida . 1991. Distribution of aluminium in accumulator plants by X-ray microanalysis of Richeria grandis Vahl leaves from a cloud forest in Venezuela. Plant, Cell and Environment. 14. 4. 437–441. 10.1111/j.1365-3040.1991.tb00954.x.
  11. Ryvarden. Leif. 1983. Type Studies in the Polyporaceae 14: Species Described by N. Patouillard, Either Alone or with other Mycologists. Occasional Papers of the Farlow Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany. 18. 1–39. 10.5962/p.305853 . free.

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