Pouteria gardneri ( Martius & Miquel 1863:102 ) Baehni (1942:233)

Völtz, Rafael R., Alves-Araújo, Anderson & Goldenberg, Renato, 2020, Native Species of Sapotaceae Juss. in Paraná, Brazil, Phytotaxa 430 (4), pp. 224-276 : 255-256

5.5 Pouteria gardneri ( Martius & Miquel 1863:102) Baehni (1942:233) . Figure 17

Tree or treelet. Trunk section cylindrical, unbuttressed; bark whitish-gray, rough; slash light yellow-orange, tangential section with ripple marks, not discoloured, with abundant latex. Stems with young shoots ochre, soon grayish, lenticellate, slightly fissured, rounded, tomentose or pubescent at first, becoming glabrous when older. Leaves spaced or loosely clustered at the stem apex. Petiole 4.0–8.0 mm long, flat or grooved, tomentose or pubescent, seldom glabrous. Leaf blade chartaceous, 4.5–12.5 × 2.0–3.0 cm, narrow-elliptic, oblanceolate or elliptic, apex acuminate, base acute to shortly decurrent, glabrous on both sides or with sparse hairs at the base of the midrib on the abaxial surface, venation eucamptodromous, midrib raised on both sides, secondaries 8–19 pairs, straight and arcuate near the margin, parallel, slightly raised on the adaxial surface, raised on the abaxial surface, thin intramarginal vein present, intersecondaries absent or poorly developed, tertiary veins percurrent, branches oblique, or reticulate, slightly raised on both sides, quaternary veins reticulate. Inflorescences axillary and ramiflorous, 1–3-flowered. Pedicel 5.8–8.7 mm long, pubescent. Flowers androgynous, greenish in vivo; calyx in a single whorls of 5 sepals, 2.5–3.0 mm long, ovate or oblong, apex rounded, margin entire or occasionly ciliate, abaxial surface pubescent, adaxial surface glabrous or with sparse hairs at the base, without a broad glabrous marginal stripe; corolla cyathiform, glabrous or with sparse hairs at the base on the abaxial surface, ca. 3.5 mm long, tube shorter than the lobes, ca. 1.5 mm long, lobes 5, 2.2–2.8 mm long, wide-ovate or suborbiculate, apex rounded, margin entire or erose; stamens 5, fixed at the top of the corolla tube, filaments ca. 1.5 mm long, glabrous, anthers ca. 2.0 mm long, glabrous; staminodes 5, ca. 1.5 mm long, narrow-lanceolate, margin entire; ovary 2-locular, 1.2 mm long, subglobose, style ca. 1.5 mm long, glabrous, stigma simple or slightly 2-lobed. Fruit and seed not available.

Selected material: — BRAZIL. Paraná: Adrianópolis, 6 November 2016, R.R. Völtz 1113 ( EFC, HCF, MBM, NY, RB, UPCB, VIES). Cerro Azul, 25 February 2015, J.M. Silva 8755 ( MBM).

In Paraná Pouteria gardneri occurs at two regions: one in the mountainous region of Ribeira river between 120 and 300 m elev., in Submontane Atlantic Rain Forest; another in the riverbanks of Paraná river at 245 m elev., in Alluvial Semideciduous Seasonal Forest. Collected with flowers in November and February and with fruits in November and December. It can be recognized by the eucamptodromous venation with secondary veins straight, parallel and arcuate near the margin, the glaucous abaxial surface of the leaf, and the flowers with long pedicels (5.8–8.7 mm long). Pennington (1990) mentioned that P. gardneri has unisexual flowers (dioecious), but the specimens from Paraná have stamens and ovary in the same flowers, thus we considered them as androgynous flowers.

Conservation Status: —This species was listed as “Not evaluated” ( NE) by CNCFlora (2018). In Paraná P. gardneri the two main populations are disjunct, none of them in protected areas. The loss of habitat to agriculture/ pastures, the decline in quality of habitat, and the construction of dams are the main problem to its conservation.

Figures

FIGURE 17. Pouteria gardneri. A. Bark. B. Slash. C. Abaxial surface of the leaf. D. Flower, longitudinal section. E. Adaxial surface of the corolla. F. Inflorescences. G. Stem with flower. H. Detail of the venation. (A–H from R.R. Völtz 1113) (ov: ovary; st: stamen; stm: staminode).