Pouteria bullata (S. Moore 1925: 205 ) Baehni (1942: 257)

Völtz, Rafael R., Alves-Araújo, Anderson & Goldenberg, Renato, 2020, Native Species of Sapotaceae Juss. in Paraná, Brazil, Phytotaxa 430 (4), pp. 224-276 : 249-251

5.2 Pouteria bullata (S. Moore 1925: 205) Baehni (1942: 257) . Figure 14

Canopy to emergent tree. Trunk section cylindrical or irregular in the lower third of the trunk, buttressed or not; bark reddish-brown or dark-brown, fissured, fissure deep, long, V-shaped, parallel or oblique, ridges flattened or rounded, sometimes fissured-scaly, scales woody, suberose or papyraceous, rectangular; slash light yellow-orange, tangential section with longitudinal streaks, not discoloured, with abundant latex. Stems with young shoots ferrugineous, soon reddish-brown or grayish-brown, not lenticellate, cracked and scaly, angled or rounded at first, becoming rounded when older, young shoots hispid-tomentose, soon glabrous. Leaves clustered at the stem apex. Petiole 10.7–44.1 mm long, grooved, hispid-tomentose or seldom glabrescent. Leaf blade coriaceous or chartaceous, 9.3–33.6 × 4.7–14.8 cm, narrow-obovate or seldom elliptic, apex shortly acuminate, rounded or obtuse, base cuneate to acute, adaxial surface glabrous, but tomentose on the midrib, abaxial surface pubescent, but tomentose on the midrib and secondaries, venation eucampto-broquidodromous, midrib slightly raised but recessed on the adaxial surface, raised on the abaxial surface, secondaries 13–25 pairs, straight and arcuate near the margin, parallel, slightly raised but recessed on the adaxial surface, raised on the abaxial surface, intramarginal vein present, intersecondaries absent, tertiary veins percurrent, branches oblique, slightly sunken or flat on the adaxial surface, raised on the abaxial surface, quaternary veins reticulate. Inflorescences ramiflorous 2–5-flowered. Pedicel 1.0– 2.4 mm long, sericeous-tomentose. Flowers androgynous, greenish in vivo; calyx in 2 whorls of 2 sepals, 4.0– 6.1 mm long, ovate, apex obtuse, the outer ones with margin entire or sparsely ciliate, abaxial surface pubescent or sericeous-tomentose, adaxial surface glabrous, the inner ones with margin sparsely ciliate, abaxial surface sericeous-tomentose, adaxial surface glabrous, with a broad glabrous marginal stripe; corolla tubulose, glabrous, 7.1–8.3 mm long, tube longer than the lobes, 4.3–6.1 mm long, lobes 4, ca. 3.0 mm long, wide-oblong, apex rounded or obtuse, margin ciliate; stamens 4, fixed halfway or in the lower third of the corolla tube, filaments 3.7–5.0 mm long, glabrous, anthers ca. 1.5 mm long, glabrous; staminodes 4, ca. 2.5 mm long, narrow-oblong, margin entire or sparsely ciliate; ovary 4-locular, 1.2–4.0 mm long, ovoid, style 3.7–10.5 mm long, glabrous, stigma simple or slightly lobed. Fruit ripening yellowish, ca. 4.5 × 4.0 cm, subglobose, globose or wide-ellipsoid, tomentose, hard thick pericarp, style and calyx persistent, 1-seeded. Seed ca. 3.0 × 2.0 cm, ellipsoid; testa smooth, shining; scar ca. 25 mm long, broad, covering all or most of the whole seed length, oblong.

Selected material: — BRAZIL. Paraná: Adrianópolis, 21 March 2017, R.R. Völtz 1203 ( EFC, HCF, MBM, RB, UPCB, VIES). Adrianópolis, 26 September 2016, R.R. Völtz 1156 ( MBM). Bocaiúva do Sul, 30 October 1990, G.G. Hatschbach 54792 ( MBM). Campina Grande do Sul, 24 September 1969, G.G. Hatschbach 22242 ( MBM). Guaratuba, 22 October 1971, G.G. Hatschbach 27567 ( MBM). Piraquara, 1 May 1949, G.G. Hatschbach 1399 ( MBM, UPCB).

Additional selected material: — BRAZIL. São Paulo: Barra do Turvo, 6 April 2002, O.S. Ribas 4603 ( MBM).

In Paraná Pouteria bullata occurs in the mountainous region of the Atlantic coast and Serra do Mar on hill slopes up to 1100 m elev., in Submontane and Montane Atlantic Rain Forest. It can be found mainly above 650 m elev. along the tributaries of the Ribeira river until the contact with the Araucaria Forest. Collected with flower buds in January and June, flowers in March and May, immature fruits in June and July and ripening fruits in August, September and November. It can be recognized by the deep fissured bark, slash with the outer bark thick with whitish spots or lines on the surface, the leaves densely clustered at the stem apex, the large and bullate leaves, and the erect two-branched hairs on the abaxial surface of the leaf. Pouteria bullata and P. torta have been confused util now because they share similar vegetative morphology, such as the hispid-tomentose ferrugineous indumentum on the young shoots, the leaves densely clustered at the stem apex, the strongly raised veins, and the pubescent to tomentose abaxial surface of the leaf. However, P. bullata differs by the midrib and secondary veins slightly raised but recessed and tertiaries slightly sunken or flat on the adaxial leaf surface, making it looks like bullate (vs. not bullate in P. torta ), the abaxial surface of the leaf with erect two-branched hairs (vs. with tangled and matted hairs), the corolla lobes with ciliate margins (vs. sparsely ciliate), and filaments 3.7-5.0 mm long (vs. 2.5–3.3 mm long). Pennington (1990) suggested that floral characters of P. bullata , such as the densely ciliate corolla margins, short filaments, and short included style differ from the ones from P. torta , which has a sparsely ciliate corolla margin, larger filaments, and a longer exserted style. However, in the specimens from Paraná, some of these floral characters were not found: although it is clear the difference between the densely and sparsely ciliate corolla margins, the filaments in P. bullata are longer than in P. torta , and the style in P. bullata is exserted. Furthermore, P. bullata is a large tree occurring in the Atlantic Rain Forest, while P. torta is a small tree growing in the Cerrado. Pouteria bullata is similar to P. guianensis and the differences between them are discussed under the latter species.

Conservation Status: —This species was listed as “Endangered” ( EN) by CNCFlora (2018) and “Vulnerable” ( VU) by IUCN (2018). In Paraná P. bullata is irregularly distributed along the Submontane and Montane Atlantic Rain Forest and most populations are in protected areas. The loss of habitat to agriculture/pastures/forest plantation is the main problem to its conservation.

Figures

FIGURE 14. Pouteria bullata. A. Habit. B. Bark. C. Slash. D. Abaxial surface of the leaf. E. Flower, longitudinal section. F. Adaxial surface of the corolla and detail of the ciliate margin. G. Lateral and frontal view of the seed. H. Fruit. I. Stem with fruit. J. Detail of the indumentum. K. Flower in vivo. (A–C, from R.R. Völtz 970; D, H–I from R.R. Völtz 1156; E, K from R.R. Völtz 1203; F, J from G.G. Hatschbach 1399; G from G.G. Hatshcbach 22242) (ov: ovary; sc: seed scar; st: stamen; stm: staminode).