Pouteria butyrocarpa (Kuhlm.) T.D.Penn.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Sapotaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Pouteria butyrocarpa (Kuhlm.) T.D.Penn.

  • Synonyms

    Lucuma butyrocarpa Kuhlm.

  • Description

    Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /home/emu/nybgweb/www-dev/htdocs/science-dev/wp-content/themes/nybgscience/lib/VHMonographsDetails.php on line 179

    Species Description - Tree; young shoots shortly pubescent at first, soon glabrous, becoming greyish-brown, cracked and fissured, roughened with numerous leaf and inflorescence scars, without lenticels. Leaves spirally arranged, 10-28 × 3-10 cm, oblanceolate, apex acute to rounded, base tapering, finally acute or rounded, coriaceous, glabrous; venation eucamptodromous, midrib flat or slightly raised on upper surface, secondary veins 11-14 pairs, ascending, parallel or slightly convergent, slightly arcuate; intersecondaries few, short or long; tertiaries obscure; fine areolate reticulum present. Petiole 1.5-3 cm long, channelled at the apex, shortly appressed pubescent. Fascicles few-flowered, axillary and below the leaves. Flowers sessile. Sepals five, 4-5 mm long, strongly imbricate, ovate to lanceolate, apex acute or obtuse, appressed pubescent outside, glabrous inside. Corolla (not seen, description from Kuhlmann) cylindrical, 6-7 mm long, lobes five, ovate-oblong, glabrous. Stamens five, ? fixed in middle of corolla tube (see note below); anthers ovate-cordate. Staminodes five, equalling the stamens, lanceolate-subulate. Ovary ovoid, five-locular, densely pubescent; style ca. 4 mm long after anthesis, glabrous; style-head simple. Fruit 4-5 × 3.5-4 cm, ellipsoid or ovoid, apex and base rounded, minutely verruculose, glabrous. Seeds 1-3, 3-3.5 cm long, narrowly obovoid, sometimes plano-convex or shaped like the segment of an orange, apex obtuse to rounded, base acute to obtuse, testa smooth, shining, 0.75-2 mm thick; scar adaxial, full length, 0.5-1 cm wide, often tapering from above halfway to the base; embryo with plano-convex, free cotyledons, radicle exserted ca 2 mm; endosperm absent. Field characters. Large tree with reddish bark; slash smelling strongly of almonds. Flowering May, mature fruit Oct.

  • Discussion

    According to Kuhlmann, the species provides a fine timber, a delicious edible fruit. The plant is also noteworthy for the high oil content of the cotyledons, though it is not known whether this has any practical or economic potential. The similarly oily cotyledons of Vitellaria paradoxa are an important source of vegetable oil in W Africa.

  • Common Names

    Cupão, fruta de manteiga, pao do mato

  • Distribution

    Confined to wet coastal rain forest in S Bahia and Espírito Santo, Brazil.

    Brazil South America| Bahia Brazil South America| Espirito Santo Brazil South America|