Donn. Sm., Bot. Gaz. (Crawfordsville) 61:386.1916
N. pittieri Standl.
Dioecious shrub, usually less than 2 m tall (to 7m); younger branches densely ferruginous-pubescent, becomingglabrate in age. Leaves opposite or nearly so; petioles 0.5-5 cmlong, canaliculate, often somewhat reddish; blades ± elliptic,ovate to obovate-elliptic, abruptly to gradually long-acuminate,obtuse to attenuate at base, 7-36 cm long, 3-15 cm wide, entire,glabrous above, glabrate to puberulent below. Inflorescencesterminal, obscurely dichasial thyrses, essentially glabrous todensely ferruginous-pubescent,4-15 cm long, bearing few to many flowers; staminate flowersnarrowly tubular-urceolate,5-10 mm long, about 2.5 mm wide, the perianth with 5 shortlobes, the limb weakly spreading; stamens 8, to 5.5 mm long,included, attached near base of tube; filaments of differentlengths, united into a short tube around the sessile pistillode.Pistillate flowers similar to staminate flowers but with aprominent constriction about one-third of the way down the perianthtube, thickened within at point of constriction; style andstaminodia (usually 9) fitting tightly through theconstriction, included, later exposed when the upper third ofperianth above the constriction withers and falls; staminodia heldjust above constriction; ovary narrowly elliptic, sessile, at firstloosely enveloped by perianth, by maturity completely fillingit; style slender; stigma with few divisions. Anthocarp elliptic-oblong, ca 1 cm long, atfirst reddish, becoming violet-purple at maturity, the persistentperianth fleshy and sweet; seed solitary, somewhat shorterthan fruit. Croat 4213, 5626.
Frequent in the forest. Flowers throughout theyear, most commonly from March to September. The fruits are mostcommon from June to December.
Standley (1933) also reported N.psychotrioides Donn. Sm., which is a Costa Rican speciesearlier confused with N. laetevirens Standl. of the Atlanticslope of Panama. N. laetevirens probably does not occur onBCI. Most of the material from BCI assigned the name N.psychotrioides isN. amplifolia. A singlesterile collection, Shattuck 121, is in doubt; it does notappear to be typical of N. amplifolia. However, it can bestated with confidence that a second species of Neea doesnot now occur on the island. Leaves of the species are consistentlyhost to various cryptogamic epiphytes, including mosses andlichens.
Costa Rica and Panama. In Panama, knownprincipally from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, all alongthe Atlantic slope, and in Darien; known also from premontanewet forest in Colón Chiriqui, and Coclé and from tropicalwet forest in Colón.
See Fig. 227.
