Hymenaea altissima Ducke & Anais Acad. Brasil. Ci.

Large trees, up to 38 m tall. Petiole 1–1.3 (–1.7) cm long; petiolule 3–4 (–5) mm long; leaflets 4–5.7 (–6.4) × 2–2.5 cm, oval, narrow-elliptic or elliptic, strongly falcate, due to central vein with an angle c. 35°, apex acuminate, rarely acute, base acute along the inner margin and truncate along the outer margin, distance from the inner margin to central vein 4–5 mm in the basal region. Flower buds 1.5–2.5 cm long; flower 2–2.7 cm long; hypanthium 7–12 mm long; petals 1.2–1.6 cm long. Fruit cylindrical, of uniform width, apex mostly rounded and apiculate. Hymenaea altissima shows the smallest leaflets and flowers in the species group related to Hymenaea courbaril (Table 4). Additionally, its leaflets are strongly falcate due to the strongly curved and displaced midvein, with an abruptly acuminate apex. The base of the leaflet is acute along the inner margin and truncate along the outer margin (Figure 3). The fruits are mostly cylindrical, as in Hymenaea courbaril, but usually shorter than those of this species (4–5 vs. 8–20 cm long) because they have only one or two seeds, while in Hymenaea courbaril they usually have six or more seeds. This species is restricted to the coastal rain forests of eastern Brazil, from southern Bahia State to São Paulo and Paraná states. This species was described by Ducke (1935) as Hymenaea altissima. Lee and Langenheim (1974) treated it as a variety of Hymenaea courbaril. Later, these latter authors highlighted the differences between this taxon and the other varieties as having smaller and falcate leaflets and smaller flowers (Lee and Langenheim 1975: 86), but kept it as a variety of Hymenaea courbaril, a position also adopted by Pestana (2010). Our results indicated that the leaf traits of Hymenaea altissima are clearly distinct of those of Hymenaea courbaril and Hymenaea longifolia. These results, together with the distinctive flower and fruit traits and the coherent distribution and habitat data, all give support to the original view of Ducke (1935) in considering it a different species. Lee and Langenheim (1975: 84) stated that the lectotype of Hymenaea altissima was designated by Egler (1963) as the specimen “A. Ducke RB 30306”. However, Egler (1963: 51) simply indicated that the type should be “Type: RB 23.306”. We could not track any specimens of Hymenaea in the RB herbarium with the numbers RB 30306 or RB 23306. We encountered, however, a specimen annotated by Ducke as Hymenaea altissima that was collected in the state of “Rio de Janeiro, Avelar” by G. M. Nunes in 1925 and could be linked to the protologue of Hymenaea altissima (Ducke 1935). This specimen is numbered RB 20306, and we are assuming that both Egler (1963) and Lee and Langenheim (1975) erroneously noted the RB number when referring to the lectotype of Hymenaea altissima.