Ruptiliocarpon
Encyclopedia
Ruptiliocarpon is a monotypic
genus
of flowering plant
s in the family
Lepidobotryaceae
. The genus has only one species
, Ruptiliocarpon caracolito. It is a tall tree
that grows in several small isolated areas of central
and South America
. It is known from Costa Rica
, Colombia
, Peru
, and Suriname
. It is locally common on hillsides and other well-drained areas, often in red clay
, from near sea level to 400 meters in elevation.
The seed is surrounded by two endocarps which fall away and litter the ground below. To those who live where it grows, it is known as cedro caracolito, the "little snail
cedar", because the larger of the two endocarps resembles a small shell. The wood
of Ruptiliocarpon is light and used in cabinet-making, but is often overlooked by wood harvesters.
Novon published two other studies of Ruptiliocarpon in the same issue. They confirmed that Ruptiliocarpon was closely related to Lepidobotrys, but came to no firm conclusions on the relationships of this pair to other groups of rosids. One study found that the wood anatomy of Ruptiliocarpon was very much like that of Lepidobotrys and shared some traits with the wood anatomy of Trichilia
, a member of the family Meliaceae. The wood of Ruptiliocarpon was different from the wood of all others that it was compared to in having vestured pits on the walls of its xylem cells. Another study found some similarities in flower structure with Meliaceae, but also found that ovule and seed morphology suggested a relationship with Phyllanthaceae, a family that the authors did not consider to be separate from Euphorbiaceae.
" is applied to a wide variety of tree
s. In Costa Rica
, where most of the specimens of cedro caracolito were collected, the term "cedro", with a qualifying adjective, is applied to Carapa
(Meliaceae
), Cedrela
(Meliaceae), Tapirira
(Anacardiaceae
), and Calophyllum
(Clusiaceae
).
Cedro caracolito has long been known to local inhabitants, but it was not named and described in the botanical literature until 1993, when sufficient material for such a description was finally collected. At that time, Barry Hammel and Nelson Zamora named it Ruptiliocarpon caracolito, basing their description mostly on specimen
s from Costa Rica.
Ruptiliocarpon is a Latin
-Greek
hybrid
name. Ruptilio, in Latin, means "to split irregularly", and "carpon" is the Greek word for fruit
. The name describes the characteristic opening of the fruit and is an obvious difference from Lepidobotrys
, the other member of the family. Even though some language purists frown on the creation of hybrid names, and the ICBN discourages it, Hammel and Zamora created this name because, as they said, "we consider the purely Greek or Latin options decidedly inelegant".
When Hammel and Zamora described Ruptiliocarpon, two other detailed studies of its anatomy were published at the same time. These studies confirmed that Ruptiliocarpon was correctly placed in Lepidobotryaceae, but they were inconclusive about the relationships of Lepidobotryaceae to other families. The authors suggested possible relationships to Meliaceae
and Phyllanthaceae
, but it is now known that Lepidobotryaceae belongs in Celastrales
.
The type
material for the species is from near Limón, on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. It has been reported that the flowers of the South American trees are quite different from those of the Costa Rican trees, but flowering specimens from South America have not been collected.
Ruptiliocarpon is a tree, 20 to 30 meters, or sometimes to 40 meters tall. The trunk is straight and 50 to 90 centimeters DBH
.
The leaves
are arranged alternately
in two rows along the stem
. The leaf blade is elliptic
in shape and the margin is entire
. The leaves appear simple, but are actually compound and unifoliate. The leaf consists of a single leaflet
on the end of a rachis
. The petiolule is swollen for its entire length and a conspicuous joint separates it from the rachis. This joint bears a single, elongate stipel. There is a pair of fused stipule
s at the base of the petiole
. The stipel and stipules soon fall away. The inflorescence
is an irregular arrangement of several spike
s attached opposite a leaf.
The flower
s are small and green with five sepal
s and five petal
s that are nearly alike. The flower bud
opens only slightly, producing a small hole in its end. The male and female flowers are only slightly different in appearance, with each tree bearing flowers of only one sex.
The ten stamens are united into a tube, which secretes nectar. Five anthers are attached to the top of the tube, and between them, five more are mounted on short filament
s. The ovary
has two compartments that are separated by a partition. The ovule
s are attached to the partition, near its top. The two stigma
s are short and attached directly to the apex of the ovary.
The fruit is a capsule
, 2.5 to 3.5 cm long and 1.5 to 2.5 cm wide, containing one, or rarely, two seed
s. The capsule breaks up and its pieces fall, leaving the seed and the surrounding endocarps. The endocarps then fall, leaving the seeds hanging on the tree. The seed is shiny and black with its lower third covered by an orange aril
.
, the other being the small Africa
n tree Lepidobotrys staudtii. The two are much alike in being trees with alternate, elliptic, unifoliate leaves in two rows along the twigs. The flowers are small, green or greenish, with five sepals and five petals that are nearly alike, and ten stamens in two series. The fruit is a capsule with one or rarely, two seeds.
Ruptiliocarpon differs from Lepidobotrys in several characters. The stigma is short, rather than elongate, and the ovary has two rather than three compartments. The most obvious differences are in the male parts of the flower and in the opening of the fruit. In Ruptiliocarpon, the stamens have filaments that are short and united into a tube, rather than long and fused only at the base. The anthers are basifixed instead of versatile. The capsule ruptures irregularly, instead of splitting along a seam.
Monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...
genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Lepidobotryaceae
Lepidobotryaceae
Lepidobotryaceae is a flowering plant family in the order Celastrales. It contains only two species, Lepidobotrys staudtii and Ruptiliocarpon caracolito.- Description :...
. The genus has only one species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
, Ruptiliocarpon caracolito. It is a tall tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
that grows in several small isolated areas of central
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. It is known from Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, and Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
. It is locally common on hillsides and other well-drained areas, often in red clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
, from near sea level to 400 meters in elevation.
The seed is surrounded by two endocarps which fall away and litter the ground below. To those who live where it grows, it is known as cedro caracolito, the "little snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
cedar", because the larger of the two endocarps resembles a small shell. The wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
of Ruptiliocarpon is light and used in cabinet-making, but is often overlooked by wood harvesters.
Taxonomic history
Ruptiliocarpon was named and described by Barry Hammel and Nelson Zamora in the journal Novon in 1993. They saw that it was a close relative of Lepidobotrys and made it the second member of Lepidobotryaceae. In the same paper, they wrote a reassessment of the family.Novon published two other studies of Ruptiliocarpon in the same issue. They confirmed that Ruptiliocarpon was closely related to Lepidobotrys, but came to no firm conclusions on the relationships of this pair to other groups of rosids. One study found that the wood anatomy of Ruptiliocarpon was very much like that of Lepidobotrys and shared some traits with the wood anatomy of Trichilia
Trichilia
Trichilia is a flowering plant genus in the family Meliaceae. These plants are particularly diverse in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America....
, a member of the family Meliaceae. The wood of Ruptiliocarpon was different from the wood of all others that it was compared to in having vestured pits on the walls of its xylem cells. Another study found some similarities in flower structure with Meliaceae, but also found that ovule and seed morphology suggested a relationship with Phyllanthaceae, a family that the authors did not consider to be separate from Euphorbiaceae.
Names
Cedro caracolito is not a cedar in the strictest sense, but in Spanish, the term "cedroCedro
Cedro is a town and municipality in the state of Ceará in the Northeast region of Brazil.-References:...
" is applied to a wide variety of tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s. In Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, where most of the specimens of cedro caracolito were collected, the term "cedro", with a qualifying adjective, is applied to Carapa
Carapa
Carapa is a genus in the mahogany family Meliaceae. The c. 25 species become medium-sized to large trees to 30 m tall, occurring in tropical South America and Africa; common names for include Andiroba and Crabwood.-Species:...
(Meliaceae
Meliaceae
The Meliaceae, or the Mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs in the order Sapindales....
), Cedrela
Cedrela
Cedrela is a genus of seven species in the mahogany family Meliaceae. They are evergreen or dry-season deciduous trees with pinnate leaves, native to the tropical and subtropical New World, from southern Mexico south to northern Argentina. The name is derived from a diminutive form of Cedrus...
(Meliaceae), Tapirira
Tapirira
Tapirira is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family Anacardiaceae.Selected species:*Tapirira benthanniana*Tapirira chimalapana*Tapirira guianensis*Tapirira marchandii*Tapirira mexicana*Tapirira obtusa...
(Anacardiaceae
Anacardiaceae
Anacardiaceae are a family of flowering plants bearing fruits that are drupes and in some cases producing urushiol, an irritant. Anacardiaceae include numerous genera with several of economic importance. Notable plants in this family include cashew , mango, poison ivy, sumac, smoke tree, and marula...
), and Calophyllum
Calophyllum
Calophyllum is a flowering plant genus of around 180-200 species of tropical evergreen trees in the family Calophyllaceae. The generic name is derived from the Greek words καλος , meaning "beautiful", and φυλλον , meaning "leaf." Its members are native to Australasia, Madagascar, Eastern Africa,...
(Clusiaceae
Clusiaceae
The Clusiaceae or Guttiferae Juss. is a family of plants formerly including about 37 genera and 1610 species of trees and shrubs, often with milky sap and fruits or capsules for seeds. It is primarily tropical...
).
Cedro caracolito has long been known to local inhabitants, but it was not named and described in the botanical literature until 1993, when sufficient material for such a description was finally collected. At that time, Barry Hammel and Nelson Zamora named it Ruptiliocarpon caracolito, basing their description mostly on specimen
Specimen
A specimen is a portion/quantity of material for use in testing, examination, or study.BiologyA laboratory specimen is an individual animal, part of an animal, a plant, part of a plant, or a microorganism, used as a representative to study the properties of the whole population of that species or...
s from Costa Rica.
Ruptiliocarpon is a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
-Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
hybrid
Hybrid word
A hybrid word is a word which etymologically has one part derived from one language and another part derived from a different language.-Common hybrids:The most common form of hybrid word in English is one which combines etymologically Latin and Greek parts...
name. Ruptilio, in Latin, means "to split irregularly", and "carpon" is the Greek word for fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
. The name describes the characteristic opening of the fruit and is an obvious difference from Lepidobotrys
Lepidobotrys
Lepidobotrys is a flowering plant genus in the family Lepidobotryaceae. It contains only one species, Lepidobotrys staudtii. L. staudtii is a small African tree, ranging from Cameroon eastward to Ethiopia....
, the other member of the family. Even though some language purists frown on the creation of hybrid names, and the ICBN discourages it, Hammel and Zamora created this name because, as they said, "we consider the purely Greek or Latin options decidedly inelegant".
When Hammel and Zamora described Ruptiliocarpon, two other detailed studies of its anatomy were published at the same time. These studies confirmed that Ruptiliocarpon was correctly placed in Lepidobotryaceae, but they were inconclusive about the relationships of Lepidobotryaceae to other families. The authors suggested possible relationships to Meliaceae
Meliaceae
The Meliaceae, or the Mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs in the order Sapindales....
and Phyllanthaceae
Phyllanthaceae
Phyllanthaceae is a family of flowering plants in the eudicot order Malpighiales. It is most closely related to the family Picrodendraceae. The Phyllanthaceae are most numerous in the tropics, with many in the south temperate zone, and a few ranging as far north as the middle of the north temperate...
, but it is now known that Lepidobotryaceae belongs in Celastrales
Celastrales
Celastrales is an order of flowering plants. They are found throughout the tropics and subtropics, with only a few species extending far into the temperate regions. There are about 1200 to 1350 species in about 100 genera. All but 7 of these genera are in the large family Celastraceae...
.
Seasons
In Costa Rica, Ruptiliocarpon blooms in late March and early April, soon after the emergence of new leaves. The flowers are small and green and they attract little attention. Because of this, and because of the short flowering time, flowering material has rarely been collected. The fruits mature by the following January and remain on the tree into February. Trees are easily grown from seed.Description
Because Ruptiliocarpon was not botanically described until 1993, descriptions of Lepidobotryaceae from before that time are obsolete.The type
Biological type
In biology, a type is one particular specimen of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached...
material for the species is from near Limón, on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. It has been reported that the flowers of the South American trees are quite different from those of the Costa Rican trees, but flowering specimens from South America have not been collected.
Ruptiliocarpon is a tree, 20 to 30 meters, or sometimes to 40 meters tall. The trunk is straight and 50 to 90 centimeters DBH
Diameter at breast height
Diameter at breast height, or DBH, is a standard method of expressing the diameter of the trunk or bole of a standing tree. DBH is one of the most common dendrometric measurements....
.
The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are arranged alternately
Phyllotaxis
In botany, phyllotaxis or phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem .- Pattern structure :...
in two rows along the stem
Plant stem
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...
. The leaf blade is elliptic
Leaf shape
In botany, leaf shape is characterised with the following terms :* Acicular : Slender and pointed, needle-like* Acuminate : Tapering to a long point...
in shape and the margin is entire
Leaf shape
In botany, leaf shape is characterised with the following terms :* Acicular : Slender and pointed, needle-like* Acuminate : Tapering to a long point...
. The leaves appear simple, but are actually compound and unifoliate. The leaf consists of a single leaflet
Leaflet
A leaflet in botany is a part of a compound leaf. A leaflet may resemble an entire leaf, but it is not borne on a stem as a leaf is, but rather on a vein of the whole leaf. Compound leaves are common in many plant families...
on the end of a rachis
Rachis
Rachis is a biological term for a main axis or "shaft".-In zoology:In vertebrates a rachis can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the rachis usually form the supporting axis of the body and is then called the spine or vertebral column...
. The petiolule is swollen for its entire length and a conspicuous joint separates it from the rachis. This joint bears a single, elongate stipel. There is a pair of fused stipule
Stipule
In botany, stipule is a term coined by Linnaeus which refers to outgrowths borne on either side of the base of a leafstalk...
s at the base of the petiole
Petiole (botany)
In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...
. The stipel and stipules soon fall away. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
is an irregular arrangement of several spike
Raceme
A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...
s attached opposite a leaf.
The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are small and green with five sepal
Sepal
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...
s and five petal
Petal
Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...
s that are nearly alike. The flower bud
Bud
In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of the stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be specialized to develop flowers or short shoots, or may have...
opens only slightly, producing a small hole in its end. The male and female flowers are only slightly different in appearance, with each tree bearing flowers of only one sex.
The ten stamens are united into a tube, which secretes nectar. Five anthers are attached to the top of the tube, and between them, five more are mounted on short filament
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...
s. The ovary
Ovary (plants)
In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the pistil which holds the ovule and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the base of the petals and sepals...
has two compartments that are separated by a partition. The ovule
Ovule
Ovule means "small egg". In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: The integument forming its outer layer, the nucellus , and the megaspore-derived female gametophyte in its center...
s are attached to the partition, near its top. The two stigma
Gynoecium
Gynoecium is most commonly used as a collective term for all carpels in a flower. A carpel is the ovule and seed producing reproductive organ in flowering plants. Carpels are derived from ovule-bearing leaves which evolved to form a closed structure containing the ovules...
s are short and attached directly to the apex of the ovary.
The fruit is a capsule
Capsule (fruit)
In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a structure composed of two or more carpels that in most cases is dehiscent, i.e. at maturity, it splits apart to release the seeds within. A few capsules are indehiscent, for example...
, 2.5 to 3.5 cm long and 1.5 to 2.5 cm wide, containing one, or rarely, two seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s. The capsule breaks up and its pieces fall, leaving the seed and the surrounding endocarps. The endocarps then fall, leaving the seeds hanging on the tree. The seed is shiny and black with its lower third covered by an orange aril
Aril
An aril is any specialized outgrowth from the funiculus that covers or is attached to the seed. It is sometimes applied to any appendage or thickening of the seed coat in flowering plants, such as the edible parts of the mangosteen and pomegranate fruit, the mace of the nutmeg seed, or the...
.
Relationships
Ruptiliocarpon caracolito is one of only two species in the family LepidobotryaceaeLepidobotryaceae
Lepidobotryaceae is a flowering plant family in the order Celastrales. It contains only two species, Lepidobotrys staudtii and Ruptiliocarpon caracolito.- Description :...
, the other being the small Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n tree Lepidobotrys staudtii. The two are much alike in being trees with alternate, elliptic, unifoliate leaves in two rows along the twigs. The flowers are small, green or greenish, with five sepals and five petals that are nearly alike, and ten stamens in two series. The fruit is a capsule with one or rarely, two seeds.
Ruptiliocarpon differs from Lepidobotrys in several characters. The stigma is short, rather than elongate, and the ovary has two rather than three compartments. The most obvious differences are in the male parts of the flower and in the opening of the fruit. In Ruptiliocarpon, the stamens have filaments that are short and united into a tube, rather than long and fused only at the base. The anthers are basifixed instead of versatile. The capsule ruptures irregularly, instead of splitting along a seam.