Quizarra Amarillo

A small laurel with velvety gray leaves, Ocotea mollicella occurs in montane oak forests, including a documented transition zone at Las Tablas. Known locally as quizarra amarillo, it grows in Costa Rica's central highlands, including Zarcero, San Ramón, the slopes of Irazú, Copey and Santa María de Dota. Unlike its larger relatives that tower in the canopy, this modest tree rarely exceeds 16 meters, preferring the filtered light of landslide scars and road cuts where clouds settle each afternoon.

The species epithet mollicella means "soft" or "tender," describing the soft texture of the fine gray felt that coats the undersides of the leaves. That velvety pubescence, visible even from the ground when clouds part and light catches the foliage, is the easiest way to recognize the tree in the field. Fruiting crowns draw emerald toucanets and three-wattled bellbirds during the May–August dispersal season, linking this unassuming laurel to the charismatic wildlife that ecotourists travel to see.

Identification

Leaves

The leaves are narrowly elliptic, 3–7 cm long (occasionally to 9 cm) and 1–2.3 cm wide (occasionally to 3 cm), tapering to a pointed tip and base. Unlike O. monteverdensis, they never form decurrent wings (leaf tissue that extends down along the leaf stalk). A soft, gray coat of very fine hairs (puberulent, 0.1–0.4 mm) covers the lower surface, giving it a velvety texture, while the upper face dries dark and slightly shiny. The leaf stalks (petioles) are short, just 6–12 mm, and flattened on top.

Flowers

Flower clusters are mostly racemes, rarely with a few short side branches, up to about 6 cm long, and arise in the axils of older or fallen leaves. The buds measure 2–3 mm, but open flowers expand to 4–6 mm across. Each flower has six tepals (petal-like structures typical of laurels) that darken when dried. The 2007 Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica describes their outer surfaces as hairless, while van der Werff's 2002 synopsis key places the species among those with sparsely hairy outer tepals. Nine fertile stamens surround three tiny staminodes (sterile, non-functional stamens) in the center. The racemose inflorescences and soft, gray, ascending hairs beneath the leaves help identify O. mollicella; the similar O. pittieri has shorter, erect leaf hairs.

Fruits

The small, fleshy fruits each contain one seed and sit in shallow, cup-shaped cupules about 6 mm across. Short, persistent lobes from the flower remain attached at the cupule rim. The soft, oily pulp attracts cloud forest birds that disperse the seeds across the volcanic ridges.

Distribution

Ocotea mollicella occurs on the Pacific slope and near the Continental Divide in Costa Rica's central highlands, including Zarcero, San Ramón, the slopes of Irazú, Copey and Santa María de Dota. The national flora also records it from Cerros de Escazú and Cerro Caraigres. Its very wet, rain and oak forests span elevations from 1,300 to over 2,300 meters, where it favors old landslides and roadcuts with filtered light reaching the understory. Burger and van der Werff (1990) noted a gap in collections between Poás and the western slopes of Irazú.

Most GBIF preserved-specimen records with province information are from San José, Cartago and Puntarenas, with a few from Alajuela and Heredia. Seed collectors working in Copey and Dota have learned to check for the short leaf stalks and velvety undersides before gathering material, since the similar O. pittieri grows in the same forests.

Wildlife Connections

Cloud-forest dispersers quickly find the soft, dark fruits of O. mollicella. Northern emerald toucanets and three-wattled bellbirds raid fruiting crowns at dawn, black guans carry seeds downslope into forest gaps, and azure-hooded jays stash fruits along the continental divide. Together they keep the species’ staggered subpopulations linked across Zarcero, Irazú, and the Dota highlands.

Photos (left to right, top to bottom): Northern emerald toucanet (Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0), Three-wattled Bellbird (Cephas, CC BY-SA 4.0), Black Guan (Kelly Fretwell, CC BY 4.0), and Azure-hooded Jay (Cephas, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Taxonomic History

Sidney Fay Blake described this species in 1917 from a specimen collected by Adolphe Tonduz in Costa Rica's highlands. Tonduz, a Swiss-born botanist who spent decades exploring Central American forests, gathered the type collection (Tonduz 11676), the reference material for the species name. Blake deposited it at the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. Blake placed the new species in Phoebe, a genus then used broadly for New World laurels with persistent tepals and paired glands on the innermost stamens. His epithet mollicella, meaning "soft" or "tender," described the velvety gray indument on the leaf undersides that remains the species' most recognizable field character.

The species wandered through several genera as botanists refined their understanding of Lauraceae relationships. André Kostermans, the Dutch specialist who reorganized much of the family at mid-century, transferred it to Cinnamomum as C. mollicellum. That placement never gained wide acceptance among Costa Rican botanists, who noted that the tree lacked the aromatic bark and three-veined leaves typical of true cinnamons. In 1990, Henk van der Werff published the combination Ocotea mollicella in the Flora Costaricensis treatment he coauthored with William Burger, a decision based on leaf texture and venation, the often poorly developed staminodes, and chemical similarities to other Costa Rican Ocotea documented in the species then treated as O. pittieri. O. mollicella has nine fertile stamens in three whorls, with paired glands at the filament bases in the innermost whorl.

Van der Werff revisited the species in 1999 when he circumscribed the Ocotea helicterifolia group, a group of laurels recognized by their hairy twigs and leaves, pubescence that can be felt to the touch, and shared floral and anther characters. Within this group, O. mollicella has narrowly elliptic leaves without decurrent bases, ascending gray hairs on their undersides, and racemose flower clusters. The Manual describes its tepals as glabrous on the outside, though van der Werff's 1999 key places it among species with at least sparsely hairy outer tepals. The similar O. pittieri has broader leaves; its tepals may be hairless or sparsely hairy on the outside. O. monteverdensis has decurrent leaf bases that form wings along the petioles, a feature absent in O. mollicella. Collectors working in the Copey and Dota highlands still carry van der Werff's 1999 key to separate these species in the field.

Conservation Outlook

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists O. mollicella as Near Threatened in the record available through GBIF. The species is secure within Los Quetzales National Park, Tapantí and the privately protected cloud forest blocks of the Los Santos region, yet deforestation of coffee slopes quickly reduces its available habitat. Maintaining corridors between the Turrialba–Irazú massif and the Dota hills is key to keeping the fruiting season staggered for wildlife.

Burger and van der Werff reported little good fruiting material in their 1990 treatment. They warned that even small cuts in reproductive trees could jeopardize seed supply. Local nurseries therefore propagate O. mollicella from naturally fallen fruits collected beneath tagged mother trees, ensuring that restoration plantings mirror the soft pubescence that distinguishes the species.