Ruptiliocarpon
| Ruptiliocarpon | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Celastrales |
| Family: | Lepidobotryaceae |
| Genus: |
Ruptiliocarpon Hammel & N.Zamora |
| Species: | R. caracolito |
| Binomial name | |
|
Ruptiliocarpon caracolito Hammel & N.Zamora |
|
Ruptiliocarpon is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Lepidobotryaceae. The genus has only one species, Ruptiliocarpon caracolito. It is a tall tree that grows in several small isolated areas of Central and South America. It is known from Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, and Suriname. It is locally common on hillsides and other well-drained areas, often in red clay, from near sea level to 400 m in elevation.
The seed is surrounded by two endocarps which fall away and litter the ground below. To those who live where it grows, it is known as cedro caracolito, the "little snail cedar", because the larger of the two endocarps resembles a small shell. The wood of Ruptiliocarpon is light and used in cabinet-making, but is often overlooked by wood harvesters.
Ruptiliocarpon was named and described by Barry Hammel and Nelson Zamora in the journal Novon in 1993. They saw that it was a close relative of Lepidobotrys and made it the second member of Lepidobotryaceae. In the same paper, they wrote a reassessment of the family.
Novon published two other studies of Ruptiliocarpon in the same issue. They confirmed that Ruptiliocarpon was closely related to Lepidobotrys, but came to no firm conclusions on the relationships of this pair to other groups of rosids. One study found that the wood anatomy of Ruptiliocarpon was very much like that of Lepidobotrys and shared some traits with the wood anatomy of Trichilia, a member of the family Meliaceae. The wood of Ruptiliocarpon was different from the wood of all others to which it was compared in having vestured pits on the walls of its xylem cells. Another study found some similarities in flower structure with Meliaceae, but also found that ovule and seed morphology suggested a relationship with Phyllanthaceae, a family that the authors did not consider to be separate from Euphorbiaceae.
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