Cecropia polystachya Trécul

Species Description

Tree, to 20 m tall. Leafy twigs 3-6 cm thick, green to red-brown with conspicuous lenticels, hispidulous. Lamina subcoriaceous, ca. 40 × 40 cm to 85 × 85 cm (to 100 × 100 cm), the segments 9-11 (-12), the free parts of the upper segments elliptic to oblong to subobovate, the incisions down to ca. 5/10-7/10, the larger lobes (especially in subjuvenile material) pinnately lobed (with the lobes pointing upward in fresh material); apices obtuse; upper surface smooth (to scabridulous), the "umbilicus" white-hirsute; lower surface on the main veins sparsely hirtellous to puberulous to hispidulous (mainly with uncinate to curved hairs) and also with sparse brown pluricellular hairs, with arachnoid indumentum in the areoles and on part of the reticulum; lateral veins in the free part of the midsegment 15-25 pairs, submarginally loop-connected, most of them branched; petiole ca. 35-70 cm long, grayish, sparsely to densely hirtellous to subhispidulous, with brown pluricellular hairs, and with ± dense arachnoid indumentum, ± conspicuously lenticellate (especially in the lower part); trichilia fused, the brown indument intermixed with long white hairs; stipules 20-35(-45) cm long, caducous, red-brown to dark red (or greenish), but often ± grayish due to the indumentum, with ± dense arachnoid indumentum, brown pluricellular hairs, and simple whitish hairs outside, (sub)glabrous inside; terminal buds often curved. Staminate inflorescences in pairs, erect to subpendulous; peduncle 8-14 cm long, hirsute to hispidulous to puberulous, and with arachnoid indumentum; spathe ca. 10-25 cm long, red-brown to dark red or greenish to pinkish, but ± grayish due to the indumentum, ± dense arachnoid indumentum), with sparse brown pluricellular hairs, and scattered long white unicellular hairs outside, glabrous inside; spikes ca. 15-45, 7-18 × 0.2-0.4 cm, with stipes to 1.5 cm long and glabrous; rachis sparsely hairy. Staminate flowers: perianth tubular, 1-1.5 mm long, glabrous, the apex ± distinctly 2-lobed; filaments flat; anthers ca. 0.6-0.8 mm long, appendiculate or not, remaining attached to the filament at anthesis. Pistillate inflorescences in pairs, erect, later on the peduncle curved downward and the spikes curved upward; peduncle 6-18(-26) cm long, with indumentum like that of the staminate inflorescence; spathe ca. 8-12 cm long, the color and indumentum as in the staminate inflorescence; spikes (2-)4-8, 511 × ca. 0.4-0.8 cm, to 18 × 1.2 cm in fruit, sometimes initially tortuose, subsessile; rachis sparsely hairy. Pistillate flowers: perianth ca. 1.5 mm long, with arachnoid indument below the apex outside, and often also below the style channel inside, the apex convex, muriculate, the aperture slit-shaped; style short; stigma penicillate. Fruit oblongoid, ca. 2 mm long, slightly tuberculate.

Discussion

Young trees of this species usually have pinnately lobed segments, especially in the upper part of the lamina; the lobes point upward. In adult (flowering) trees, pinnately lobed leaf segments are less common or the lobes are less pronounced. At the southern limit of the species distribution in Santa Cruz (Bolivia), near the transition of semideciduous subtropical forest to chaco scrub forest, the tree shape is usually conspicuously different from the normal (lowland Cecropia) tree shape in being more robust and usually with distinct umbrella-shaped crowns, short and thick trunks, and relatively short internodes. Moreover, in this area the species is predominantly represented by a green morph (with whitish stipules). The common red morph, with reddish-greyish stipules occurring exclusively elsewhere in the range of the species, is far less common in the region indicated. The appendages at the bases of the thecae varies from well-developed (to 0.1 mm long) to absent. Cecropia polystachya is essentially a lowland species, but in Huánuco and Junín, Peru, it can be found at elevations to 1800 m. Material of this species collected by Ruiz and Pavón comprises specimens with the segments of the lamina distinctly lobed and leaves with (sub)entire segments. Both Trécul (1847) and Klotzsch (1847) described the two morphs as distinct species. Ruiz and Pavón collected both staminate and pistillate inflorescences of this species. Some sheets contain both types of inflorescences (like those on which Klotzsch described as C. pinnatiloba and C. ruiziana), others only one of them. The names Cecropia leucophaea and C. nivea are probably based on the same collection made by Poeppig.

The species is (or has been) in cultivation in several places in Brazil: Minas Gerais (Viçosa) and São Paulo (Campinas, and Piracicaba), and it may have become naturalized in Mogi-Guaçu.
BRAZIL. São Paulo: Campinas, Dtto. Barão Geraldo, Cidada Universitária, 16 Oct 1978 ([male]), Gabrielli et al. 8758 (UEC), ([male] + [female]), Gabrielli et al. 8759 (UEC), Mun. Mogi-Guaçu, Reserva Biologica de Mogi-Guaçu, 19 Nov 1992 ([male]), Godoi et al 269 (SP), ([female]), Godoi et al. 270 (SP).
It has also been planted in the Botanical Gardens of Durban (South Africa: 1967, A. P. Mills 22, A) and Singapore (1967, Sidek bin Kiah S.60, A, C; 1979, J. F. Maxwell 79-59, AAU). The species is planted as an ornamental tree along an avenue in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia: 1994, Mostacedo et al. 2391, NY).
The fruiting spikes are sold in markets in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Authority

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