Pouteria virescens Baehni

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Sapotaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Pouteria virescens Baehni

  • Type

    Type. Guyana. Bartica-Potaro rd., mile 107, Nov 1943 (fl), Forest Department British Guiana 4248 (Fl 512) (holotype, NY; isotypes, G (fragment), K).

  • Description

    Species Description - Tree; young shoots finely appressed puberulous, becoming glabrous, pale greyish, cracked and fissured, lenticels present or absent. Leaves spaced, spirally arranged, 8.7-20 × 4.5-7.5 cm, oblong to oblanceolate, apex rounded or obtusely cuspidate, base acute to narrowly attenuate, margin slightly revolute, coriaceous, glabrous; venation mostly brochidodromous, midrib flat or only slightly raised on the upper surface, secondary veins 7-12 pairs, parallel or slightly convergent, straight or slightly arcuate; intersecondaries moderate to long; tertiaries lax, reticulate. Petiole 1.3-3.3 cm long, flat or slightly channelled in the upper half, appressed puberulous to glabrous. Fascicles 3-10-flowered, axillary and below the leaves. Pedicel 3-7 mm long, appressed puberulous. Flowers unisexual (plant dioecious). Sepals five, (male) ca. 4 mm long, (female) ca. 2.5 mm long, ovate to elliptic, apex obtuse to rounded, appressed puberulous outside, puberulous inside. Corolla (male) ca. 5 mm long, tube ca. 2 mm long, lobes ca. 3 mm long, (female) ca. 3 mm long, tube equalling the lobes, lobes five, obovate, apex rounded, glabrous. Stamens five, fixed near the top of the corolla tube (but traces visible to near base); filaments ca. 1.5 mm long, glabrous; anthers 1.5-1.75 mm long, lanceolate, apiculate, glabrous; stamens absent in female flower. Staminodes five, (male) 2.5-2.75 mm long, (female) ca. 1 mm long, lanceolate-subulate, or sometimes irregular in female, glabrous. Disk absent. Ovary conical, bilocular, densely stiff-pubescent; style ca. 1.5 mm long after anthesis, stiff-pubescent; style-head simple. Fruit ca. 4 × 3 cm, broadly ellipsoid, apex obtuse, base truncate, smooth, velutinous. Seeds two, ca. 2.4 cm long, ellipsoid, slightly planoconvex, acute at base and apex, testa smooth, shining, adherent to pericarp, 0.5-1.5 mm thick; scar adaxial, full-length, elliptic, ca. 8 mm wide; embryo with plano-convex, free cotyledons, radicle exserted, ca. 1.5 mm; endosperm absent. Field characters. Tree to 30 m high and 45 cm diam., buttressed to 2 m. Bark reddish-brown, scaling, with thick milky white latex. Flowers yellowish-white to pale brown, fruit ripening orange. Flowering Oct to Nov, fruit Nov to Dec, and Jun.

  • Common Names

    Abiurana, asipoko, Asipokoballi

  • Objects

    Pending, T. D. Pennington 12122, Pouteria virescens Baehni, Sapotaceae (269.0), Magnoliophyta; South America, French Guiana, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni

    Specimen - 01251510, E. J. Ferreira 126/57, Pouteria virescens Baehni, Sapotaceae (269.0), Magnoliophyta; South America, Brazil, Amapá, Macapá Mun.

  • Distribution

    Guyana and French Guiana to central Amazonian Brazil; in mixed lowland rain forest on non-flooded land. It is a component of Clump Wallaba forest and Morabukea forest in Guyana.

    Guyana South America| French Guiana South America| Brazil South America| Amazonas Brazil South America|