Manilkara

• Authority

  Pennington, Terence D. 1990. Sapotaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 52: 1-750. (Published by NYBG Press)

• Family

  Sapotaceae

• Scientific Name

  Manilkara

• Type

  Type species. Manilkara kauki (Linnaeus) Dubard (Mimusops kauki Linnaeus).

• Synonyms

  Achras, Sapota, Synarrhena, Synarrhena subsericea (Mart.) Fisch. & C.A.Mey., Eichleria Progel, Muriea, Kaukenia Kuntze, Shaferodendron, Murieanthe Aubrév., Nispero, Manilkariopsis, Chiclea, Mopania Lundell, Manilkara kauki (L.) Dubard, Mimusops kauki var. browniana A.DC., Achras sapota L., Synarrhena subsericea (Mart.) Fisch. & C.A.Mey., Mimusops subsericea Mart., Mimusops hexandra Roxb., Mimusops longifolia A.DC., Eichleria discolor M.M.Hartog, Labourdonnaisia discolor Sond., Muriea discolor Hartog, Mimusops albescens (Griseb.) Hartw., Bassia albescens Griseb., Kaukenia elengi (L.) Kuntze, Shaferodendron moaensis Gilly, Manilkara tabogaensis Gilly, Manilkara zapotilla (Jacq.) Gilly, Achras zapota var. zapotilla Jacq., Nispero achras (Mill.) Aubrév., Achras sapota L., Chiclea guatemalensis Lundell, Mopania chicle (Pittier) Lundell, Achras chicle Pittier

• Description

  Genus Description - Unarmed trees or rarely shrubs with sympodial branching. Shoot apex often covered with transparent varnish-like wax. Small caducous stipules present or absent. Leaves spirally arranged, very rarely opposite or whorled, often densely clustered at the stem apex. Venation brochidodromous with a marginal vein, secondary veins usually straight, parallel, ascending, looping below the margin and sometimes forming a submarginal vein; intersecondaries and tertiaries often prominent, parallel to the secondaries and descending from the margin; quaternary veins often prominently reticulate or areolate. Inflorescence axillary or in the axils of leaf scars. Flowers solitary or fasciculate, bisexual. Calyx of two whorls of (2-)3(-4) free or slightly united sepals, the outer whorl valvate or only slightly imbricate. Corolla nearly always glabrous; tube usually much shorter than the lobes, rarely equalling or exceeding them; lobes 6(-9), usually divided to the base into three segments; median segment usually erect, narrow, clawed, clasping the stamen; two lateral segments spreading, shorter than, equalling or exceeding the median segment, entire, deeply divided or laciniate, or less frequently corolla lobe only partly divided or 2-3-lobed at the apex, or entire; corolla occasionally carnose. Stamens 6(-12) in a single whorl inserted at the top of the corolla tube, very rarely fixed within the tube; filaments free or partially fused to the staminodes; anthers extrorse, nearly always glabrous. Staminodes (0-)6(-9), alternating with the stamens, truncate or variously lobed and divided, often ending in two filiform teeth, nearly always glabrous. Ovary 6-12-locular, hairy or glabrous, placentation axile or basi-ventral; style exserted. Fruit 1-several-seeded, smooth or scaly, glabrous, indehiscent, fleshy. Seed ellipsoid to obovoid, strongly laterally compressed, with a hard shining woody testa; scar narrowly elongate, basi-ventral or extending along most of the adaxial surface: embryo vertical with foliaceous cotyledons and an exserted radicle; endosperm copious.

• Discussion

  Pollen : Pollen (Figs. 158, 159) (number of specimens examined: 15; number of spp.: 12). Grains subprolate (frequently), prolate-spheroidal or rarely spheroidal. 4-, 4-5(5)-colporate. Average polar length 36.5-51.4 µm. Colpi short or long. Endoapertures occasionally more or less circular. Tectum not protrudent. Endexine thin under mesocolpial tectum, noticeably thicker around apertures. Tectum often perforate, the perforations tending to be dense at the poles. Surface of tectum smooth or indistinctly patterned or very finely granular; in some species granules anastomose giving a finely rugulate appearance. Excepting perforations, no differentiation between apocolpia and mesocolpia.