Oreomunnea mexicana

Oreomunnea mexicana is a Central American tree species from the family of the walnut family ( Juglandaceae ). The wood is hard and is made into baseball bats.

Features

The trees are 15 to 40 m high, with a diameter at breast height of up to 100 cm. The stem is erect, branching starts relatively high. Buttress roots are formed in a moderate extent. The bark peels off, is reddish - brown on the surface, inside bright orange. Bud and branches are covered with bronze - yellow, shield -shaped scales and not hairy.

The leaves are arranged in pairs and are pinnate, pubescent in the bud, then grown bald. The petiole is 1-3 cm long, the rachis 2 to 12, the 4-12 leaflets are facing constantly up against almost constantly. The leaf margin is usually quite, individual shoots bear leaves with coarsely serrated margin. The leaf base is symmetrical or asymmetrical, rolled back on one or both sides and often auriculate. The leaf mechanism works with large trees three times a year in March-June, August and November. Young leaves are yellowish - red.

The female inflorescences are terminal at this year's shoots individually or in groups of several. In the flower stand upright and contain 30 or more kittens per single flowers. To fruit maturity, they are hanging. The male inflorescences are terminal and form a panicle of 1-6 drooping catkins. It also occur regularly androgynous racemes: a central female spike is surrounded at the base of 1-3 pairs of permanent male kitten.

The male flowers are small. The support sheet is three-lobed. There are 4 rarely 5 blossoms segments ( sepals and / or Brakteolen ). Each segment includes a partially each 2, rarely 3 stamens. The female flowers are sessile and almost sitting up at an angle of 45 ° to the axis kitten. The corolla tube is short, calyx lobes and scar are not raised well above the flower cups. The four calyx lobes are wide. The style is short and deeply divided into two pen arms. Flowering occurs simultaneously with the new leaves sprout.

The fruit is medium in size and carries three wings. The side are large up to 4.5 cm, the mean to 3.5 cm. The nut fruit is globose, to 10 mm in size and surrounded by a thin (0.03 mm), papery sheath. The nutshell is cartilaginous and 0.11 mm thin.

The first appearing in the open leaves of the seedling are alternate and pinnate with serrated leaf edge. The result leaves are then opposite, the leaf margin is in the course of growth increasingly entire.

Dissemination

The species occurs from southern Mexico to Costa Rica before. In Mexico, it is found mainly in the states of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas. It grows in the primary forest of the cloud forest belt 1100-1850 m above sea level.

System

The species is divided into two subspecies, which differ in the details of the flower morphology:

• Oreomunnea mexicana subsp. mexicana from Mexico to Nicaragua
• Oreomunnea mexicana subsp. costaricensis in Costa Rica

Documents

• Héctor V. Navare Flores: Juglandaceae. Flora de Veracruz, Volume 31, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones sobre Recursos Bióticos, Xalapa 1983, ISBN 84-89600-51-1

• Walnut Family
• Juglandaceae
• Tree