inside, sometimes (few) red hairs present, pistil 2 - 2.5 mm long, glabrous, ovary ca. 1 mm long, 
0.7 - 1 mm wide; fruit 8 - 11 mm long, 6 - 8.5 mm wide, ellipsoid, cupule 2.5 - 7.5 mm long, 3.5 
- 5.5 mm wide, pedicel absent or 1 - 6 mm long, 0.8 - 1.2 (2) mm wide, tepals persistent, 
acrescent. 
Flowers are present from September to December, and March to April. Ripe fruits are 
found from November to February, and in May. Vegetation types where this species grows 
include capao, Araucaria forest, mata ciliar, cerrado, and campo rupestre; between (400) 750 - 
1100 (1550) m of altitude. This species is rather common along the mountain ranges in southern 
Brazil, from Sao Paulo to Santa Catarina. 
In his work about the plants collected by Sellow in Brazil, Nees (1833) does not give any 
collection number for the type collection of Persea sellowiana. Later, in his Systema 
Laurinarum, Nees (1836) cites Sellow 4783 (flowers) and Sellow 1559 (fruits) as the material 
studied at B. Only one duplicate of Se/low 4783 was found at K in the loans requested for the 
present study. As the original description implies he studied only flowering material, thus I 
concluded Sellow 4783 is the type collection of this species. There is, however, one duplicate of 
a Sellow collection (without number) at BR, apparently annotated by Nees, that is labeled as type 
material. Also a duplicate likely from same collection is at G. Both specimens however, look 
very alike to Sellow 4783 but it is not possible to assure they belong to the same number. 
For some time I thought C. sellowianum and C. stenophyllum were conspecific, but I 
prefer for the moment to treat them as different species. The reasons are the following: first, 
although there exist specimens of C. se/lowianum with narrow leaves, these tend to present 
160 
