Sideroxylon octosepalum (Urb.) T.D.Penn.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Sapotaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Sideroxylon octosepalum (Urb.) T.D.Penn.

  • Synonyms

    Dipholis octosepala Urb., Bumelia octosepala (Urb.) Stearn

  • Description

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    Species Description - Shrub or small tree; young branches densely brown tomentose with crisped hairs, soon becoming glabrous, greyish-white, smooth, usually without lenticels. Plant unarmed. Leaves spirally arranged, not clustered, 9-12.5 × 4-6 cm, apex shortly narrowly attenuate, base narrowly attenuate to obtuse or truncate, decurrent, sub-coriaceous, margin sometimes undulate, densely brown tomentose on both surfaces at first, soon becoming glabrous or persisting along the midrib; venation craspedodromous to eucamptodromous with a strong marginal vein, midrib flat on the upper surface; secondary veins 11-14 pairs, ascending, arcuate, parallel; intersecondaries inconspicuous to moderately long; tertiaries reticulate; petiole 1-2.5 cm long, not channelled, brown tomentose at first. Flowers bisexual, axillary, in 2-4-flowered fascicles. Pedicel 5-6 mm long, brown tomentose. Sepals 6-8,3-4 mm long (bud), very broad with rounded apex, strongly overlapping, imbricate, densely pubescent outside, glabrous inside. Corolla (bud) glabrous, or appressed pubescent at base of tube, lobes five; median segment rounded, lateral segments lanceolate. Stamens five, fixed at the base of the corolla lobes, glabrous; anthers (bud) 0.75 mm long, broadly lanceolate, extrorse and ventri-fixed. Staminodes five, ovate, erose, glabrous. Ovary ovoid, tapering gradually to the style, appressed, puberulous or glabrous, 5-locular; style glabrous, style-head simple. Fruit ca. 1.1 × 0.5 cm, ellipsoid-cylindrical, apex truncate-apiculate, base tapering, smooth, glabrous; pericarp 0.5-3 mm thick, fleshy. Seed solitary, 0.8-0.9 cm long, ellipsoid, slightly laterally compressed; testa hard, smooth and shining, thickened and hollowed at the base, 0.5-1 mm thick; scar basal, circular, ca. 1 mm in diam.; embryo vertical, with thin foliaceous cotyledons, and radicle exserted ca. 2 mm, surrounded by copious endosperm. Field characters. Shrub or small tree to 10 m high with white flowers. Flowering season May to Sep, fruit in Jan.

  • Distribution

    Jamaica, apparently confined to the Peckham Woods area of Clarendon Parish, where it occurs in forest over limestone around 800 m altitude.

    Jamaica South America| Clarendon Jamaica South America|