Euplassa glaziovii (Mez) Steyerm.

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident

Plana, V. & Prance, G. (2004). A Synopsis of the South American Genus Euplassa (Proteaceae). Kew Bulletin, 59(1), 27-45. doi:10.2307/4111072

Type

Brazil. Rio de Janeiro, Serra do Tinguá, Glaziou 13490 (lectotype B!, designated by Sleumer 1954 [photo. F!, GH neg 11774]; isolectotypes C!, K!).

Morphology General

Tree or shrub up to 12 m

Morphology General Habit

This species is characterised by the combination of glabrous to glabrescent leaflets frequently with an emarginate apex; a rufous- hirsute, cone-shaped ovary; the weakly prominent secondary venation, frequently indistinct from the tertiary reticulation

Distribution

Found in Venezuela (and possibly Guyana). Most common in the altiplano of the Gran Sabana, in the Venezuelan state of Bolívar. It has been collected in Roraima but the exact locality remains unknown.

Ecology

It generally grows in shrubland or savanna between 1030 and 2000 m, but also gallery forests on the border of savanna, usually at lower altitudes of approximately 470 m (in distrito Piar de Bolívar)

Phenology

Flowering from November to May. Collected with young fruits in February.

Note

Euplassa glaziovii is closely related to E. pinnata, E. madeirae and E. chimantensis, sharing the hirsute ovary, fused hypogynous nectaries, the presence of a flower- pair peduncle, pedicellate flowers, and subcoriaceous to coriaceous leaves. Differentiation amongst these species can be difficult. This species differs from E. pinnata in lacking the beaked bud apex and in the leaflet apex being obtuse to rounded and frequently retuse, rather than acute. The leaflets of E. chimantensis are thickly coriaceous, and the primary and secondary veins are sunken into the upper surface of the lamina. In E. glaziovii the primary and secondary venation is not sunken above, the midrib is much less pronounced beneath and the leaves are not as coriaceous. The differences with E. madeirae are less obvious, and lie mainly in geographical distribution, but E. madeirae has chartaceous leaves that usually dry greyish green. Euplassa glaziovii shares a similar geographical range with E. chimantensis which occurs in the Guyana Highlands. In contrast, neither E. pinnata nor E. madeirae are known from Venezuela, the first occurring in French Guiana and northeastern Brazil closer to the coastline, and the second restricted to small areas of savanna or rocky outcrops in Amazonian Colombia and Brazil. When Steyermark first described E. venezuelana he noted its affinities with E. obversiflora (now E. organensis). The differences between these two species greatly outweigh the similarities and there can be little confusion between the two (see description of E. organensis). The type collection of this species, Glaziou 13490, is reputed to be from Rio de Janeiro, but the exact provenance of this collection is unclear. It is almost certainly mislabelled, and could be one of the Schwacke collections pirated by Glaziou (see Wurdack 1970).