Sideroxylon obovatum Lam.

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Sapotaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Sideroxylon obovatum Lam.

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub or small tree to 7 m tall; bark brown, rough, peeling off in rectangular plates, the inner bark reddish; twigs minutely hairy when young, becoming glabrous, often with axillary, simple spines. Leaves spirally arranged; blades 0.7-4.5 x 0.2-3.8 cm, wedge-shaped, obovate, oblanceolate, to spatulate, chartaceous to coriaceous, glabrous or puberulent beneath, the apex obtuse, rounded, or truncate, sometimes notched, the base wedge-shaped or attenuate, the margins entire, usually revolute; petioles 0.5-4 mm long. Flowers bisexual, solitary or 2-5 in axillary fascicles; pedicels 0.5-5 mm long, puberulent to glabrous. Calyx cupshaped, the sepals 5, 1.5-2.2 mm long, the outer pair smaller than the inner ones, oblong-ovate, rounded at apex, glabrous or puberulent; corolla yellow or cream-colored, glabrous, 3-4.5 mm long, the tube 1-1.5 mm long, the lobes 5, median segment ovate or elliptic, lateral segments narrowly lanceolate; stamens 5-6, the filaments 1.5-2.5 mm long, the anthers 0.7-0.9 mm long, ellipsoid; staminodes 5, 1.2-2.5 mm long, ovate or lanceolate; ovary ovoid, pubescent, 5-locular, the style slender, elongate, with a punctiform stigma. Berry 1-seeded, ellipsoid, ovoid to globose, 0.4-1 cm long, dark red or brown at maturity. Seeds 3.7-7 mm long, subglobose to ovoid.

  • Discussion

    Bumelia obovata var. portoricensis Pierre in Urb., Symb. Ant. 5: 143. 1904.

    Bumelia obovata var. thomensis Pierre in Urb., Symb. Ant. 5: 143. 1904.

    Bumelia krugii Pierre in Urb., S y m b . Ant. 5: 146. 1904.

    Bumelia obovata var. krugii (Pierre) Cronquist, J. Arnold Arbor. 26: 465. 1945.