Cecropia bullata C.C.Berg & P.Franco

Species Description

Tree, to 20 m tall. Leafy twigs 2-4 cm thick, densely white to brownish villous to subsericeous or to subhirsute; internodes entirely or partly filled with brown pith. Lamina subcoriaceous (when dry often brittle), ca. 30 × 30 cm to 70 × 70 cm, the segments 7-9, the free parts of the upper segments elliptic to obovate, the incisions in the upper part of the lamina down to 5/10-6/10, the lower part of the lamina lobed; apices (of the upper segments) acuminate; upper surface smooth, bullate, (sub)glabrous; lower surface with concave areoles, ± densely (sub)hirsute to hirtellous to subtomentose or sparsely hirtellous to puberulous (to subglabrous) on the veins, on the main veins often also with elongate brown pluricellular hairs, with (sparse) arachnoid indumentum in the areoles, mostly extending to the reticulum or also dense arachnoid indumentum largely covering the area between the secondary veins, often extending to the main veins; lateral veins in the free part of the midsegment 10-20 pairs, submarginally loop-connected, unbranched (or the lower ones branched); petiole ca. 40-55 cm long, puberulous to hirtellous or also whitish to brownish hirsute to (sub)villous, often also with rather dense arachnoid indumentum (or subglabrous); trichilia fused, the brown indumentum intermixed with sparse short whitish to brownish (unicellular) hairs; stipules (8-)20-36 cm long, pink to dull red, densely whitish to brownish villous to subhirsute to subsericeous or also with short arachnoid indumentum outside, sparsely hairy to glabrous inside. Staminate inflorescences in pairs or solitary, the peduncle erect, the spikes erect to ± spreading; peduncle ca. 6.5 cm long, white-hirsute; spathe pink to dull red, ± densely villous to subhirsute to hirtellous outside, glabrous inside; spikes 4-10, 6-15 × 0.7-0.8 cm, with stipes 0.3-1.5 cm long and subsericeous or with arachnoid indumentum; rachis hairy. Staminate flowers: perianth tubular, ca. 2 mm long, glabrous or puberulous below the apex, the apex plane to slightly convex, hispidulous to muriculate; filaments swollen; anthers 0.5-0.7 mm long, appendiculate, remaining attached to the filament at anthesis (?) Pistillate inflorescences (usually) solitary, erect at anthesis to pendulous in fruit; peduncle ca. 5-12 cm long, at least in the upper part or the lower part hirsute to sub villous, also with short hairs and/or sparse arachnoid indumentum; spathe 10-14 cm long, the color and indumentum as in the staminate inflorescence; spikes 2 or 1, 8-12 × ca. 1 cm, to 21 × ca. 2-3.5 cm in fruit, subsessile or with stipes ca. 0.5 cm long and hirtellous to hirsute; rachis hairy. Pistillate flowers: perianth ca. 4-5 mm long, with arachnoid indumentum below the apex, sometimes also sparsely in the style channel inside, sometimes also short stiff hairs just below the apex outside, the apex slightly convex, muriculate to smooth or hispidulous around the aperture; style rather long, straight, hairy; stigma penicillate. Fruit oblongoid, ca. 3 mm long, smooth.

Discussion
This species is closely related to both Cecropia telealba and C. gabrielis, from which it can be easily distinguished by the surfaces of the lamina: distinctly bullate above and with concave areoles beneath. From C. telealba it can also be distinguished by the absence of dense arachnoid indumentum on the upper surface of the lamina and from C. gabrielis by the hairy (villous to subhirsute) leafy twigs. The leaves are more distinctly bullate and with less dense arachnoid indumentum on the lamina beneath in the southern part of the range of distribution (Ecuador and Nariño) than in the northern part of the range (Valle to Antioquia). Since the villous indumentum is sometimes less pronouncedly present in the northern part and the stipules and spathes of C. gabrielis can be (partly) sparsely (sub)villous in Antioquia, C. bullata can (only) be distinguished by the presence of villous indumentum on the leafy twigs (and mostly also on the petioles). The trees are not inhabited by ants.

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