Sideroxylon salicifolium (L.) Lam.
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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
Achras salicifolia L., Bumelia salicifolia (Sw.) Griseb., Bumelia pentagona Sw., Sideroxylon pauciflorum Lam., Achras pentagona Poir., Sideroxylon salicifolium (L.) Lam., Sideroxylon nigrum C.F.Gaertn., Spondogona nitida Raf., Sideroxylon pentagonum (Sw.) A.DC., Dipholis salicifolia (L.) A.DC., Dipholis salicifolia var. jamaicensis Pierre, Spondogona salicifolia (L.) House, Dipholis lenticellata Lundell, Bumelia lenticellata (Lundell) Lundell
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small tree; young branches golden-ferruginous to whitish sericeous-pubescent, soon glabrous, grey to greyish-brown, usually becoming cracked, fissured, lenticellate. Not spiny. Leaves spirally arranged, not clustered, 4-11 × 0.9-3 cm, narrowly elliptic or less frequently oblanceolate, apex narrowly attenuate or occasionally acute, base narrowly attenuate; chartaceous; small amount of residual golden-ferruginous indumentum along midrib below, otherwise glabrous; venation brochidodromous with a prominent and thickened marginal vein; midrib flat on the upper surface; secondary veins 10-17 (-20) pairs, ascending, straight, parallel; intersecondaries long; tertiaries descending from the margin and parallel to the secondaries. Petiole 0.5-1.2 cm long, not channelled, sericeous-pubescent at first, soon glabrous. Flowers bisexual, axillary and in the axils of fallen leaves, in fascicles of 5-12 flowers. Pedicel 1.5-3(-6) mm long, golden ferruginous appressed puberulous. Sepals five, (1.5-)2-2.5 mm long, broadly ovate, obtuse or rounded, outside appressed sericeous-puberulous, often with a glabrous membranous margin, inside usually glabrous, occasionally puberulous near the margin. Corolla glabrous, 3-3.5 (-4.5) mm long, tube ca. 1 mm long, lobes five; median segment broadly elliptic to suborbicular, apex rounded, often erose, lateral segments lanceolate, erose or laciniate, 1-1.5 mm long. Stamens five, fixed at the top of the corolla tube, glabrous; filaments 1.5-2 mm long, anthers 0.75-1 mm long, lanceolate, ventrifixed and extrorse in bud. Staminodes 1.5-2 mm long, lanceolate to ovate, erose to fimbriate, infolded, glabrous. Ovary slender, ovoid, tapering gradually into the style, 5-locular, glabrous; style 1.25-2.5 mm long, glabrous; style-head simple. Fruit 0.6-0.85 cm long, broadly ellipsoid or globose, apex obtuse to rounded, base rounded or tapered, smooth, glabrous; pericarp 0.3-1 mm thick, fleshy. Seed one(two), 4-6 mm long, broadly ellipsoid to subglobose, slightly laterally compressed or angular (plano-convex in 2-seeded fruit); testa hard, shining, sometimes with several thickened plates on the adaxial side, slightly hollowed at the base, 0.3-1 mm thick; scar basal, circular, 0.75-1 mm diam.; embryo horizontal, oblique or less frequently vertical, with thin foliaceous cotyledons and radicle exserted 1-1.5 mm, surrounded by copious endosperm. An unarmed shrub or small tree rarely reaching 20 m high, with grey to dark brown fissured and grid-cracked bark. The slash is pale cream, with some white latex. The sap-wood is cream and the heart wood rose. The greenish or yellowish-white flowers are rather strongly scented and visited by bees and other insects. The mature fruit is black or purplish.
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Discussion
Phenology: Throughout the range of the species flowering is concentrated in the period Jan to May, coinciding with the driest part of the year in the Yucatan Peninsula. Fruiting is from May to Aug during the early part of the rainy season.
Distribution and Ecology: USA (Florida), Mexico (Veracruz, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Yucatan Peninsula), Guatemala, Belize, Bahama Archipelago, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands. In the Yucatan Peninsula S. salicifolium is a plant of semi-evergreen seasonal forest over limestone. In the Caribbean islands it occurs in similar habitats but is also frequently found near the seashore in thickets and dry scrub. Its altitudinal range is from sea level to 1500 metres.
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Common Names
Acomat bâtard, almendrillo, almendron, Avalo, cassada, caya Colorada, chachiga, cuya, red bullet, sabina, silillon, silion de sabano, silly young, sweetwood, white bully tree, white bullet, zapote faisán
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Objects
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Distribution
Mexico North America| Campeche Mexico North America| Chiapas Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Quintana Roo Mexico North America| Veracruz Mexico North America| Yucatán Mexico North America| Alta Verapaz Guatemala Central America| Izabal Guatemala Central America| Petén Guatemala Central America| Belize Central America| Bahamas South America| New Providence Bahamas South America| Turks and Caicos Islands South America| Cuba South America| Camagüey Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Clarendon Jamaica South America| Hanover Jamaica South America| Portland Jamaica South America| Saint Andrew Jamaica South America| Saint Ann Jamaica South America| Saint Catherine Jamaica South America| Saint Thomas Jamaica South America| Trelawny Jamaica South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America| Puerto Plata Dominican Republic South America| San Cristóbal Dominican Republic South America| Barahona Dominican Republic South America| Puerto Rico South America| Virgin Islands South America| Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Anguilla South America| Antigua and Barbuda South America| Dominica South America| Guadeloupe South America|