Micropholis polita (Griseb.) Pierre

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Sapotaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Micropholis polita (Griseb.) Pierre

  • Synonyms

    Sapota polita Griseb., Sideroxylon politum (Griseb.) M.Gómez, Pouteria polita (Griseb.) Baehni

  • Description

    Species Description - Tree; young shoots appressed puberulous with brown hairs, soon glabrous, pale greyish, becoming fissured and cracked, usually without lenticels. Leaves spaced, alternate and distichous, 3.813 × 1.8-5.2 cm, elliptic or lanceolate, apex narrowly attenuate or acuminate, base narrowly attenuate to rounded, margin often revolute, coriaceous, glabrous or with residual indumentum along the undersurface midrib, venation craspedodromous with a marginal vein or brochidodromous and then with a submarginal vein very close to or merging with the marginal one, midrib sunken on the upper surface, secondary veins 15-25 pairs, widely spreading, parallel, straight; intersecondaries variable, long or absent; tertiary reticulum usually visible. Petiole 4-7 mm long, channelled, appressed puberulous to glabrous. Fascicles axillary, 1-2-flowered. Pedicel 2-3 mm long, appressed puberulous. Flowers unisexual (?). Sepals five, 2.5-3 mm long, ovate, apex acute, appressed ferruginous puberulous outside, with a few appressed hairs near apex inside. Corolla 3-3.5 mm long, tube 2-2.5 mm long, lobes five, 1-1.5 mm long, ovate, rounded, glabrous. Stamens five, included; filaments ca. 0.5 mm long, glabrous; anthers ca. 0.4 mm long, lanceolate, glabrous. Staminodes five, ca. 0.6 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, glabrous. Disk absent. Ovary ovoid, five-locular, pubescent; style ca. 2 mm long after anthesis. Fruit 4-5 cm long, broadly ovoid or subglobose, apex obtuse, acute or shortly rostrate, base rounded or truncate, smooth, glabrous. Seeds several, 2.5-2.7 cm long, laterally compressed, or shaped like the wedges of an orange, testa hard, smooth, shining, 0.5-0.75 mm thick; scar adaxial, 2-4 mm wide. Field characters. Tree to 20 m high. Leaves with prominently sulcate midrib. Flowers white, fruit ripening reddish. A single flowering record from Jan, fruit collected Feb, Apr, Nov, Dec.

  • Common Names

    Sapotillo arbol

  • Distribution

    Endemic to wet forest in Oriente Province, Cuba (Leon & Alain, 1957: 130).

    Cuba South America|