Ecclinusa

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Sapotaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Ecclinusa

  • Type

    Type species. Ecclinusa ramiflora Martius.

  • Synonyms

    Passaveria Mart. & Eichler, Chrysophyllum, Ecclinusa ramiflora Mart.

  • Description

    Genus Description - Trees or rarely shrubs. Stipules present, caducous, leaving a conspicuous scar. Leaves spirally arranged, usually loosely clustered at the shoot apex; venation usually eucamptodromous, rarely brochidodromous, intersecondaries usually absent; tertiaries usually oblique, numerous, close, parallel, rarely reticulate or areolate. Inflorescence axillary or in the axils of fallen leaves. Flowers sessile, subtended by small ovate persistent bracts, usually unisexual (monoecious or dioecious). Calyx a single whorl of (four-)five free, quincuncial sepals. Corolla small (usually less than 5 mm long), campanulate or shortly tubular, the lobes usually exceeding the tube or rarely equalling it; lobes five(-seven), simple. Stamens five(-seven) included, usually fixed near halfway or in the upper half of the corolla tube, rarely in the lower half; filaments well-developed, free; anthers extrorse, glabrous. Staminodes absent. Ovary (3-)5(-9)-locular, placentation axile or basi-ventral; style included. Fruit one-several-seeded, often thin-walled and constricted between the seeds. Seed globose, ellipsoid, sometimes slightly laterally compressed or shaped like the segment of an orange, testa smooth, thin, shining; scar adaxial and nearly always extending around the base of the seed, usually narrow; embryo vertical, with thick planoconvex cotyledons, radicle not exserted, extending to the surface; endosperm absent.

  • Discussion

    Pollen: Pollen (Fig. 187) (number of specimens examined: 4; number of spp.: 3). Grains sub-prolate or prolate, tricolporate. Average polar length 34.6-51.2 µm. Colpi very reduced. Tectum protrudent. Endexine a continuous thickened band in equatorial zone. Surface patterning of apocolpia more or less smooth, patterning of mesocolpia rugulate.

  • Distribution

    Eleven species in the Neotropics, from Panama throughout tropical South America.

    Panama Central America|