Chrysophyllum gonocarpum (Martius & Eichler ex Miquel 1863: 60 ) Engler (1890: 523)

Völtz, Rafael R., Alves-Araújo, Anderson & Goldenberg, Renato, 2020, Native Species of Sapotaceae Juss. in Paraná, Brazil, Phytotaxa 430 (4), pp. 224-276 : 232-234

1.1 Chrysophyllum gonocarpum (Martius & Eichler ex Miquel 1863: 60) Engler (1890: 523) . Figure 5

Canopy to understory tree or treelet. Trunk section cylindrical, unbuttressed or slightly buttressed; bark grayish-brown to dark grayish-brown, fissured-scaly, fissure shallow or deep, short, V-shaped, parallel or oblique, ridges flattened, scales woody, rectangular or irregular; slash whitish or yellowish-white, tangential section with longitudinal streaks or sometimes with ripple marks, not discoloured, with scanty or occasionally abundant latex. Stems with young shoots grayish to yellowish-brown, soon grayish-brown or yellowish-brown, lenticellate, rough, angled at first, becoming rounded, young shoots pubescent, glabrescent or sometimes glabrous, soon glabrous. Leaves spirally arranged, spaced. Petiole 4.0–18.0(–20) mm long, grooved, pubescent or glabrous. Leaf blade chartaceous, 5.0–16.0 × 1.5–5.5 cm, oblanceolate, narrow-obovate or rarely narrow-elliptic, apex rounded, obtuse or short-acuminate, rarely acute, sometimes mucronate or retuse, base acute or cuneate, glabrous or with sparse hairs on the midrib on both sides, venation brochidodromous or eucampto-brochidodromous, midrib sunken on the adaxial surface, raised on the abaxial surface, secondaries 11–19(–23) pairs, slightly convergent, slightly raised on the adaxial surface, raised on the abaxial surface, intersecondaries short or long, tertiary veins loosely reticulate, slightly raised on both sides, quaternary veins reticulate. Inflorescences axillary and ramiflorous, 1–8-flowered. Pedicel 1.3–2.5 mm long, sericeous-tomentose or pubescent. Flowers unisexual (dioecious), cream or greenish-cream in vivo; sepals quincuncial, 1.5–3.0 mm long, orbiculate, apex rounded, margin entire, abaxial surface pubescent or glabrescent, adaxial surface glabrous or with sparse hairs near the margin, sometimes with a broad glabrous marginal stripe; corolla cyathiform, glabrous, 2.5–4.0 mm long, tube equalling or slightly longer than the lobes, 1.0–2.0 mm long, lobes 1.2–1.9 mm long, ovate, apex acute; stamens fixed in the lower half of the corolla tube, filaments 1.0– 1.7 mm long, glabrous, anthers 0.8–1.3 mm long, glabrous, absent in the pistillate flower; ovary ca. 1.0 mm long, conical, style 0.8–1.5 mm long, lanate at base, stigma slightly lobed. Fruit ripening yellowish or yellowish-orange, 1.3–1.9 × 1.5–1.7 cm, globose or orbiculate, glabrous, exocarp membranaceous, mesocarp and endocarp fleshy, calyx persistent, 1–5-seeded. Seed 1.3–1.7 × 0.7 cm, ellipsoid-fusiform, laterally compressed, testa smooth; scar adaxial, 9.5–13.5 mm long, narrow, covering about two-thirds of the seed length, linear.

Selected material: — BRAZIL. Paraná: Bandeirantes, 20 November 1995, M.V. Ferrari Tomé 607 ( MBM). Cerro Azul, 11 November 1964, G.G. Hatschbach 11838 ( MBM). Clevelândia, 15 December 1966, G.G. Hatschbach 15507 ( MBM, NY). Fênix, 19 October 1995, S.B. Mikich s.n. ( MBM, UPCB 26374). Foz do Iguaçu, 17 May 2017, R.R. Völtz 1512 ( EFC, UPCB, VIES). Medianeira, 23 October 1969, G.G. Hatschbach 22608 ( MBM, NY). Nova Cantu, 19 November 2014, G. Felitto 864 ( HCF, MBM, RB). Rio Branco do Sul, 29 December 1989, J.M. Silva 763 ( MBM, UPCB).

In Paraná Chrysophyllum gonocarpum is widespread, occurring mainly in Semideciduous Seasonal Forest, but reaching the Araucaria Forest in the Second and Third Plateaus, between 180 and 1015 m elev. Some specimens (Hatschbach 11838 and 53168, Silva 763) were collected in Atlantic Rain Forest in the Ribeira basin, between 370 and 650 m elev. Collected with flowers in January, and in August–December, fruits in March and May–November. This species is commonly found in secondary forest and forest edges. It can be recognized by the fissured-scaly bark, usually covered by mosses and liverworts, the slash whitish or yellowish-white with scanty or occasionally abundant latex, the leaves spaced and spirally arranged, the yellowish ripening fruits that are sulcate between the seeds. It shares similar leaf morphology with C. viride , but it differs from it by the lenticellate stem (vs. not lenticellate in C. viride ), the brochidodromous or eucampto-brochidodromous venation (vs. brochidodromous), the secondary veins slightly convergent (vs. straight and arcuate near the margin), the tertiary veins loosely reticulate (vs. ramified), and the pedicel 1.3–2.5 mm long (vs. 5.5–9.5 mm long). The flowers in C. gonocarpum are unisexual (vs. androgynous), but in the staminate flower pistiloid is present. Only looking at the pistillate flowers it is possible to know that the flowers are unisexual, because the stamens are absent.

Conservation Status: —This species was listed as “Not evaluated” ( NE) by CNCFlora (2018). Although widespread in Paraná, its habitat was severely lost and most of the natural areas are small and fragmented.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Chrysophyllum gonocarpum. A. Habit. B. Bark. C. Slash. D. Abaxial surface of the leaf. E. Staminate flower, longitudinal section. F. Adaxial surface of the staminate corolla. G. Pistillate flower, longitudinal section. H. Adaxial surface of the pistillate corolla. I. Lateral and frontal view of the seed. J. Fruit. K. Stem with fruit. L. Detail of tertiary veins. M. Detail of the lenticellate stem. (A–D, M from R.R. Völtz 1512; E–F from S.B. Mikich UPCB 26374; G–H from J.M. Silva 763; I, L from G. Felitto 864; J–K from E.D. Lozano 998) (lc: lenticel; ov: ovary; sc: seed scar; st: stamen).