Sideroxylon celastrinum (Kunth) T.D.Penn.
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Authority
Pennington, Terence D. 1990. Sapotaceae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 52: 1-750. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Sapotaceae
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Scientific Name
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Synonyms
Bumelia celastrina Humb., Bonpl. & Kunth, Bumelia ferox Cham. & Schltdl., Bumelia spinosa A.DC., Bumelia spiniflora A.DC., Bumelia angustifolia Nutt., Bumelia hayesii Hemsl., Lyciodes ferox Kuntze, Lyciodes hayesii Kuntze, Lyciodes spiniflorum (A.DC.) Kuntze, Bumelia microphylla Griseb., Bumelia eggersii Pierre, Bumelia schottii Britton, Bumelia affinis S.T.Blake
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Description
Species Description - Dense shrub or small tree; young branches at first appressed puberulous with whitish hairs, soon glabrous, smooth, pale grey, finally becoming finely fissured, usually with some elongate lenticels. Stout spines often present, axillary or terminal. Leaves spirally arranged and spaced at first, soon becoming fascicled on short axillary shoots, 0.7-5(-6.7) × 0.3-2.5(-3.7) cm, spathulate, oblanceolate or obovate, apex obtuse, rounded or truncate, base narrowly attenuate or cuneate, usually becoming coriaceous with age, often mottled, glabrous; venation brochidodromous with a marginal vein, midrib flat on the upper surface; secondary veins 5-8 pairs, ascending, straight, parallel; intersecondaries usually long, obscure; tertiaries descending from the margin and parallel to the secondaries, usually obscure. Petiole 0.5-4(-10) mm long, not channelled, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, axillary, in 2-5(-10)-flowered fascicles. Pedicel 2-7 mm long, glabrous. Sepals five, 1.5-2.5 mm long, broadly ovate, obtuse or rounded, glabrous. Corolla glabrous, 2.5-3.5 mm long, tube 0.5-1 mm long, lobes (four)five(six); median segment broadly ovate to orbicular, apex rounded, margin often erose; lateral segments 1-1.75 mm long, lanceolate, often toothed or erose or rarely absent. Stamens (four)five(six), glabrous; filaments 1.5-2.5 mm long, anthers 0.75-0.8 mm long, lanceolate. Staminodes (four)five(six), 1.5-2 mm long, lanceolate or ovate, infolded, often erose, glabrous. Ovary globose or ovoid, 5-locular, strigose at the base; style 2.25-3.25 mm long after anthesis, glabrous; style-head simple. Fruit 0.9-1.5 cm long, narrowly ellipsoid to cylindrical, apex obtuse or truncate, often with a small apical depression, base rounded or truncate, smooth, glabrous; pericarp 1-2 mm thick, fleshy. Seed solitary, 0.75-1.3 cm long, ellipsoid, testa hard, shiny, usually mottled, smooth, sometimes with thickened plates on the adaxial face, sometimes slightly hollowed at the base, 0.2-1 mm thick; scar basal, usually circular, 1-2 mm across; embryo vertical, with plano-convex cotyledons and radicle exserted 0.5-1 mm, surrounded by a thin sheath of endosperm. Field characters. A dense shrub or small tree to 12 m high and 30 cm diam, often multitrunked. The bark is greyish to black, finely but deeply fissured and with some horizontal cracking of the ridges. The slash is pink and exudes a small amount of white latex. The finer branching is often divaricate, and some spines are usually present.
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Discussion
In Oaxaca (Mexico) the wood is used for firewood and charcoal, and in Tamaulipas (Mexico) the plants are heavily browsed by cattle. The fruit is edible.
Phenology: The yellowish or white flowers are sometimes sweetly scented and the mature fruit is purple or black with a glaucous bloom. The fruit contains copious milky juice. Flowering throughout the range is from Nov to Mar, with the fruit ripening Mar to Jul. There is some evidence of a second flowering from May to Aug in Veracruz and Tamaulipas, Mexico.
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Common Names
Camiche, coma, comas, guamachito, hormigo, hormiguillo, Huesito, luchumche, pasita, pasito, pionche, saj, uvita negra, zalamera
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Objects
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Distribution
Southern U.S.A. (Texas), Mexico, all of Central America excluding Belize, N Colombia and Venezuela, Bahama Archipelago and Cuba (Camaguey). A species of arid thorn forest and tropical deciduous forest, or often coastal, where it is found in salt marshes or mangroves and sometimes on periodically flooded land, from sea level to 900 m.
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