Pouteria ramiflora (Martius 1838: 93) Radlkofer (1882: 333)

Völtz, Rafael R., Alves-Araújo, Anderson & Goldenberg, Renato, 2020, Native Species of Sapotaceae Juss. in Paraná, Brazil, Phytotaxa 430 (4), pp. 224-276 : 260-261

5.8 Pouteria ramiflora (Martius 1838: 93) Radlkofer (1882: 333) . Figure 20

Treelet. Trunk section cylindrical or irregular in the lower third of the trunk, buttressed; bark grayish-brown, tessellated; slash reddish, tangential section with longitudinal streaks, not discoloured, with scanty latex. Stems with young shoots ferrugineous, soon grayish-brown, not lenticellate, slightly fissured or fairly suberose, slightly angled at first, becoming rounded when older, young shoots hispid-tomentose, soon glabrous. Leaves spaced or loosely clustered at the stem apex. Petiole (4.0–)6.5–16.0 mm long, grooved or flat at the base and grooved at the apex, hispid-tomentose or puberulent. Leaf blade chartaceous, 4.0–14.0 × 2.0– 5.5 cm, elliptic or narrow-elliptic, apex obtuse or shortlyacuminate, base acute to weakly decurrent, adaxial surface glabrescent to glabrous or with sparse hairs on midrib, abaxial surface puberulent, glabrescent or glabrous, venation eucamptodromous, midrib sunken at the base and slightly raised at the apex on the adaxial surface, raised on the abaxial surface, secondaries 11–13 pairs, straight and arcuate near the margin, parallel, flat or slightly raised on the adaxial surface, slightly raised on the abaxial surface, thin intramarginal vein present, intersecondaries short or long, tertiary veins reticulate, flat on both sides, quaternary veins reticulate. Inflorescences axillary, ramiflorous or is set in a short aphyllous axillary shoot, 1–12-flowered. Pedicel 3.5–6.5(–7.5) mm long, hispid-tomentose or puberulent. Flowers androgynous, greenish in vivo; calyx in 2 whorls of 2 sepals, 2.0– 2.8 mm long, suborbiculate, apex acute, obtuse or rounded, margin entire or sparsely ciliate, abaxial surface tomentose or puberulent, adaxial surface glabrous or with sparse hairs at the apex, without a broad glabrous marginal stripe; corolla tubulose, glabrous, 2.8–3.6 mm long, tube slightly longer or longer than the lobes, 1.5–2.2 mm long, lobes 4, ca. 1.5 mm long, wide-elliptic, apex rounded, margin entire; stamens 4, fixed in the upper third or at the top of the corolla tube, filaments ca. 0.5 mm long, glabrous, anthers ca. 0.5 mm long, glabrous; staminodes 4, ca. 0.5 mm long, oblong or elliptic, margin entire; ovary 2-locular, ca. 1.0 mm long, subglobose, style 1.0– 1.6 mm long, glabrous, stigma simple. Fruit and seed not avaiable.

Selected material: — BRAZIL. Paraná: Icaraíma, 15 October 2014, M.G. Caxambú 5571 ( HCF, RB, UPCB).

Additional selected material: — BRAZIL. Mato Grosso do Sul: Nova Andradina, 25 October 1986, U. Pastore 142 ( MBM).

This is the first record for Pouteria ramiflora in Paraná, based in only one specimen collected in Ilha Grande National Park. The species occurs in the shrubland-grassland mosaic at the islands in the Paraná river, in Alluvial Semidecidal Seasonal Forest. Collected with flowers in October. It can be recognized by the grayish-brown tessellated bark, the slash reddish with whitish latex, the eucamptodromous venation with secondary veins straight and arcuate near the margin, parallel, the intersecondaries usually well-developed, and the flowers sometimes set in a short axillary shoot resembling a raceme. Pennington (1990) mentioned that P. ramiflora has unisexual flowers (dioecious plants), but the specimen studied here has stamens and ovary in the same flower, thus we consider them as androgynous.

Conservation Status: —This species was listed as “Not evaluated” ( NE) by CNCFlora (2018). Pouteria ramiflora is known from one individual, occurring in a protected area.

Figures

FIGURE 20. Pouteria ramiflora. A. Habit. B. Bark. C. Slash. D. Abaxial surface of the leaf. E. Flower, longitudinal section. F. Adaxial surface of the corolla. G. Inflorescences set in a short aphyllous axillary shoot. H. Stem with flower.I. Detail of the venation.(A–D without voucher; E–I from M.G. Caxambú 5571) (ov: ovary; st: stamen; stm: staminode).