Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana << Back ANNONACEAE 4. CYMBOPETALUM Benth., J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. 5: 69. 1860. by Nancy A. Murray Single-stemmed shrubs, treelets, or trees. Leaves large, membranous-chartaceous. Pedicels in flower internodal or leaf-opposed, most frequently on long shoots but also on short shoots, 1.3--60 cm long, articulate at the base, ebracteate. Flowers large, solitary, bisexual. Sepals 3, valvate, free or fused into a collar at the base, usually inconspicuous and much smaller than the petals; petals 6, in 2 whorls of 3, valvate, green, yellow, cream, or orange, or rarely chocolate-colored or with a maroon patch at bases of inner petals, the outer petals chartaceous, sessile, subovate, the inner petals larger, thickened, chartaceous to carnose, boat-shaped, the inner margin incurved or flat; receptacle convex. Stamens numerous, clavate; connective apex truncate, broadly conical, capitate, or slightly umbonate, hexagonal; anthers appearing locellate in bud, but septa not evident after anther dehiscence. Carpels free, 5--50; ovules 3--30 per carpel, in 2 rows or interdigitated to form a single row. Fruit apocarpous, of 1--50 stipitate, oblong-cylindric, fleshy follicles, becoming laterally dehiscent. Seeds in 1 or 2 rows, flattened-ellipsoid to oblong, black or chestnut-brown, shiny, smooth, arillate, the aril orange to red. Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia; 27 species, 1 in Venezuela. Cymbopetalum brasiliense (Vell.) Benth., J. Proc. Soc., Bot. 5: 69. 1861. ---Uvaria brasiliensis Vell., Fl. Flumin. 224. 1825 [1829]. ---Uva brasiliensis (Vell.) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 7. 1891. ---Yarayara. Trigynaea anastomosans Rusby, Descr. S. Amer. Pl. 19. 1920. Treelet 1--5 m; pedicels (2.5--)5--9(--14) cm long; leaf blades papery, elliptic, broadly elliptic, obovate-oblanceolate, or obovate, 15--31 × 6--11 cm, venation strongly reticulate-elevated below; outer petals 2--2.5 × 1.1--2 cm, inner ones 2.2--3.8 × 1.7--2.7 cm; monocarps pendent, yellow suffused with red, sickle-shaped, torulose (narrowed between successive seeds). Evergeen lowland and submontane wet forests, 0--800 m; Delta Amacuro (Sacupana, Serranía de Imataca), Bolívar (Amaruay-tepui, Río Caura, base of Uaipán-tepui along Río Hacha), Amazonas (Cerro Sipapo, east of Puerto Ayacucho, Raudal de los Guaharibos on upper Río Orinoco). Eastern and central Venezuelan Coastal Cordillera, Apure; Colombia, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, southern Peru, Brazil, northern Bolivia. Fig. 358. The most widespread species in the genus, Cymbopetalum brasiliense is easily distinguished from other Annonaceae in the flora area by its large, fleshy, involute inner petals, dehiscent monocarps, and shiny black seeds with orange to vermilion arils. Scientific Comments: Paul Berry (peberry@facstaff.wisc.edu) or Kay Yatskievych (kay.yatskievych@mobot.org).