Sarcaulus brasiliensis (A.DC.) Eyma

• Authority

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

• Family

  Sapotaceae

• Scientific Name

  Sarcaulus brasiliensis (A.DC.) Eyma

• Description

  Species Description - Tree; young shoots minutely appressed puberulous, soon glabrous, whitish-grey to mid-brown, smooth, sometimes lenticellate. Leaves spaced, spirally arranged or alternate and distichous, 6.524 × 2.3-9.4 cm, elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, apex narrowly acuminate or caudate, base narrowly attenuate to obtuse or rounded, chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, glabrous; venation eucamptodromous to brochidodromous, marginal vein present, midrib flat or slightly raised on upper surface, secondary veins 8-12 pairs, convergent, arcuate; intersecondaries short to moderately long; tertiaries forming a lax reticulum. Petiole 0.2-1.3 cm long, slightly channelled, subglabrous. Fascicles 1-8-flowered, axillary and below the leaves. Pedicel 1-3.6 cm long, often recurved or coiled, minutely appressed puberulous or glabrous. Flowers unisexual (plant dioecious). Sepals five, 1.5-2.5 mm long, broadly ovate, apex acute to rounded, appressed puberulous on both surfaces, or sometimes glabrous inside. Corolla globose or broadly cyathiform, 2.5-5 mm long, tube about equalling or slightly exceeding the lobes, lobes five, ovate or triangular, apex acute, sericeous outside, or lobes glabrous, inside of tube finely puberulous. Stamens five, fixed near the top of the corolla tube; filaments 0.3-0.5 mm long, puberulous or glabrous; anthers 0.6-1 mm long, lanceolate, glabrous, absent in female flowers. Staminodes five, 0.5-1.25 mm long, triangular or broadly ovate, appressed puberulous outside, glabrous inside. Disk absent. Ovary ovoid to cylindrical, 2-5-locular, puberulous; style 0.5-1.5 mm long after anthesis, puberulous; style-head simple or minutely lobed. Fruit 1.8-3.2 cm long, subglobose to ellipsoid, apex acute to rounded, base rounded to tapered, smooth, glabrous or sparsely and minutely appressed puberulous. Seeds 1-2, 1.2-1.7 cm long, usually laterally compressed, rounded at base and apex, testa smooth, shining, ca. 0.3 mm thick; scar adaxial and usually extending around the base, 2-4 mm wide; embryo with plano-convex, free cotyledons, radicle extending to the surface; endosperm absent.

• Discussion

  Distribution and Ecology: Costa Rica and Panama to the Guianas (not recorded from Venezuela), southwards to Amazonian Brazil, Peru and Bolivia; also present in coastal Brazil. A species of lowland and lower montane rain forest, found on both periodically flooded and non-flooded land, ascending to 750 m altitude on the eastern slopes of the Andes in Bolivia.