Cecropia peltata L.

Species Description

Tree, to 15(-25) m tall. Leafy twigs 1.5-4 cm thick, green, hispidulous with curved to uncinate hairs. Lamina chartaceous to subcoriaceous; ca. (10 × 10 cm to) 20 × 20 cm to 60 × 60 cm, the segments (7-)8-10(-11), the free parts upper segments oblong or elliptic, the incisions down to ca. 5/10-7/10; apices short-acuminate to rounded; upper surface scabrous, hispidulous; lower surface minutely puberulous, intermixed with rather sparse longer hairs, with arachnoid indumentum in the areoles, also on the reticulum or extending to the main veins; lateral veins in the free part of the midsegment (8-)10-15(-17) pairs, marginally (or submarginally) loop-connected, usually branched; petiole (10-)20-50 cm long, puberulous or also with arachnoid indumentum; trichilia fused, the brown indumentum intermixed with short (or sometimes with rather long) white hairs; stipules 3-10(-12) cm long, pinkish or reddish, sometimes subpersistent, strigose to hirtellous and often also with arachnoid indumentum outside, sparsely to densely (sub)sericeous inside. Staminate inflorescences erect to deflexed; peduncle 2-12.5 cm long, sparsely to densely puberulous to hirtellous to sub-hispid(ulous); spathe 2.5-7 cm long, pinkish (to purplish), greenish or whitish, puberulous to hirtellous and often also with arachnoid indumentum outside, (sub)sericeous inside; spikes ca. (10-) 15-25(-60), 0.5-6 × 0.2-0.25 cm, with stipes to 0.8 cm long and hairy; rachis hairy. Staminate flowers: perianth tubular, 1-1.5 mm long, with short and stiff hairs or sometimes short arachnoid indumentum below the apex, the apex plane, smooth; filaments flat; anthers ca. 0.5-0.6 mm long, appendiculate, detached at anthesis, reattached to the margin of the aperture by the appendages at anthesis. Pistillate inflorescences in pairs, erect to pendulous; peduncle 3-10(-16) cm long, sparsely to densely puberulous to hirtellous to hirsute or to subhispid, often also with arachnoid indumentum; spathe 3.5-6 cm long, the color and indumentum as in the staminate inflorescence; spikes 3-4(-5), l-4 × 0.3-0.4 cm, to 9 × 1.1 cm in fruit, sessile or with stipes to 0.5 cm long and hairy; rachis hairy. Pistillate flowers basally connate; perianth 1-1.5 mm long, with arachnoid indumentum below and on the apex outside, absent (or in and below the style channel) inside, the apex flat to slightly convex; style short; stigma peltate. Fruit ovoid to ellipsoid, ca. 2 mm long, tuberculate, dark brown.

Discussion

In Jamaica, some collections have trichilia, others have vestigial ones, and in several collections they are absent. Material without trichilia or vestigial ones can be distinguished from Cecropia schreberiana var. antillarum (found in other Caribbean islands) by the scarce and white pith in the internodes and the absence of relatively long and soft hairs on the veins of the lamina beneath. Trichilia are present in the collection from the Swan Islands and in all collections made elsewhere. Several collections, e.g., Jansen-Jacobs et al. 971 and 1260 from Guyana, and Fernandez 6533 from Venezuela (Amazonas), have long white hairs in the trichilia; they resemble C. metensis in this respect, but lack the dense arachnoid indumentum on the petiole.

The species has been introduced into several countries in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, and also to the Bermuda Islands (Brown et al. 1683, NY). It has become naturalized in several countries in West Africa, at least in Cameroun (R. Letouzey 12474 and 14828, P; S. A. Thompson et al. 1398, MO), Ghana (.H. H. Schmidt et al. 2032, MO), Ivory Coast (E. Merklen s.n., US; Leeuwenberg 4504, MO; Miège & Aké Assi 3960, G, P; Téré HGT 2755, G), and Senegal (Berhaut 984, P); also French Polynesia (Makatea, Raiatea, Rapa, Tahaa, and Tahiti, according to Florence [1997: 24-26, fig. 1]), for the first time collected in 1927; and Malaysia (Mat Asri FRI 25549, A; see also Putz & Holbrook, 1988). In Cameroun, it is competing with Musanga cecropioides (McKey, 1988a). The species has been or is still present in some botanical gardens: China (Guangzhou, according to Liao [1991, 1992], and Xishuangbanna), Gabon (Libreville, 1900, C. Chalot 48, P), Singapore (1930, C. X. Furtado s.n., A), Indonesia (Bogor, 1952, Anonymous s.n., A), and Taiwan (Shiaping Tropical Botanical Garden, Chishan, according to Liao [1991, 1995]; introduced from El Salvador and with trichilia, see Liao, 1991: 131, fig. 5, photo. 1; and Liao, 1995: 134, fig. 5, photo. 1). For the material in the Botanical Garden of Bogor, Brazil was indicated as the provenance. According to Putz & Holbrook (1988) the material in Malaysia is introduced from Indonesia (Bogor). If the annotation on the Bogor material about the provenance is correct, the material should belong to Cecropia pachystachya, but the collections examined do not show some of the characteristic features of that species. Moreover, C. pachystachya has never been encountered without trichilia. Thus, the information about origin or the identity of this material is dubious. In material from Africa trichilia are absent or poorly developed. In French Polynesia they may often be lacking. In Malaysian material examined by Putz & Holbrook (1988), 80% of the specimens had fully (fused) developed trichilia, 8% poorly (separate) developed ones, and 12% none. The intriguing question is whether all this material has as its origin Jamaica, the only area in which C. peltata is found with and without trichilia, or whether loss of the ability to form (well-developed) trichilia was developed after introduction elsewhere (in two species?). The latter case would confirm the hypothesis of dissolution of the mutualism between Cecropia and Azteca due to the absence of the latter partner and manifest in the absence of trichilia (Janzen, 1973).

Authority

Berg, Cornelius C. & Franco Rosselli, Pilar. 2005. Cecropia. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 94: 1--230. (Published by NYBG Press)