Alfaroa guanacastensis

Alfaroa guanacastensis is an endemic Costa Rican tree species from the family of the walnut family ( Juglandaceae ).

Features

Alfaroa guanacastensis is up to 27 m tall, monoecious tree with a diameter at breast height of 90 cm. Buttress roots are small to large in size and reach up to 3 m on the trunk. The bark is completely or is thrown off in small pieces. It is up to 1 cm thick, reddish brown on the surface, inside throughout pink or pink outside and orange inside. The buds and branches are bare.

The leaves are arranged and are bald. The petioles are 2-5 cm long, the rachis usually 4 to 16, rarely up to 22 cm. The 8 to 10 leaflets are opposite or nearly so, entire, symmetrical, flat to slightly rolled back and bare, with the exception of occasional hairs at the leaf base between midrib and edge. The sub-petioles are 2-7 mm long.

The female inflorescences are terminal at this year's shoots, are stiff and upright with up to 45 flowers per spike. The male catkins are about 2 to 6 and form a constricted, terminal panicle at this year's shoots or they arise from axillary buds on last year's shoots. There are also androgynous racemes face off against standing with one to two pairs of male catkins and about one to four female flowers terminal in a kitten.

The male flowers smell like gardenias are sitting. They are in a three-lobed bract, the short, broad and blunt. The four segments are hood-shaped flowers, each partially obscured three of the 12 stamens. The pollen grains are almost triangular in polar view and have a diameter of 21.8 microns. The female flowers are stalked. The three-lobed bract is fused with the Brakteolen. The four calyx lobes extend over the scar and make it to the heyday of a chamber, but can also be bent back. The pen is short or absent, the scars lobes are horseshoe shaped.

The shape of the fruit is variable, ranging from spherical to elongated to 2.5 cm in diameter (3.8 x 1.7 cm). The calyx remains as a beak at the top. The bract - lobe is 8 to 10 mm in size and pressed to the nut. The shell has 3 mm relatively thin, the surface is smooth, ribs and with slight longitudinal furrows. The nut shell is 1-2 mm thick and hard.

The first two appearing in the open leaves of the seedling are variable, opposite or nearly so, simple or compound, entire, rarely with a few small teeth. The next leaves are alternate, pinnate and entire. With time, the leaves are opposite sides.

Dissemination and locations

Alfaroa guanacastensis, is known only from the Cordillera de Guanacaste in Costa Rica, Guanacaste province, among others from the volcanoes Orosi, Maravalles and Tenorio and the area around San Ramon at the southeast end of the Cordillera de Tilaran. It grows in submontane rainforest in 650 to 1000 m altitude. It does so under the low-lying wet slopes of facing the Caribbean side in front, as well as in the field of passes and ridges where the moist, coming from the Pacific air sweeps past.

Documents

• Walnut Family
• Juglandaceae
• Tree