(Last Modified On 7/19/2013)
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(Last Modified On 7/19/2013)
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Species
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Diospyros digyna Jacq.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Hort. Schoenb. 3: 35, tab. 313. 1798.
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Note
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TYPE: Hort. Schoenb. 3: tab. 313. 1798.
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Description
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Tree to 20 mn tall; bark black, scaling in small pieces; branchlets minutely strigillose. Leaves subcoriaceous, drying grey green or blackish; lamina to 18 cm long and 7 cm wide, elliptic, oblong-elliptic or lanceolate-elliptic, the apex obtuse to subacuminate, the base cuneate, the lower surface glabrous except for a few minute, in part forking, strigillose hairs, the lateral nerves in 8-12 pairs, the tertiary and other veins forming a close but inconspicuous reticulum. Male flowers subsessile in ca. 5-flowered cymules in the axils of leaves or bracts towards the base of the current year's shoot; peduncle ca. 0.5 cm long; calyx to 1 cm long, minutely puberulous on both surfaces, the tube cup shaped, 0.4-0.5 cm long, the lobes 4-5, ca. 0.5 cm long, plicate, reduplicate; corolla to 1.8 cm long, more or less conical in bud, urceolate at anthesis, the tube ca. 1.2 cm long, strigillose-tomentellous outside, the lobes 4-5, suborbicular, 0.6 cm long, 0.6 cm wide, glabrous except for the sparsely strigillose part which is exposed before the flower opens; stamens ca. 20, to 0.9 cm long, attached mostly in pairs to the base of the corolla tube, included, the filament and connective densely strigillose, the connective short apiculate; ovary rudimentary, minute, setulose. Female flowers solitary or in fascicles of 2-3, borne otherwise as in the male flowers; calyx and corolla similar to those in the male flowers but the calyx longer and the corolla shorter and broader; staminodes ca. 12, 0.3-0.8 cm long, attached to the base of the corolla tube; ovary 0.5 cm long, 0.4 cm wide, sub- globose, tomentellous, the styles 4-5, ca. 0.5 cm long, united at the base, ending on the inner face in fleshy, irregularly lobed stigmas, the locules 8 or 10, uni- ovulate. Fruit (4-)6-8 cm in diameter, subglobose, black and glabrous when ripe; seeds 8 or 10 or fewer by abortion, 2 cm long, 1 cm wide, 0.5 cm thick, reddish brown; endosperm not ruminate; fruiting calyx 1.4-2 cm long, saucer shaped, glabrous outside, tomentellous inside, the lobes hemiorbicular to ovate, 0.6-0.9 cm long, the margin undulate.
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Habit
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Tree
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Note
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Diospyros digyna has edible fruit
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Distribution
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extends southwards from Mexico to Panama and Colombia.
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Note
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For centuries it has been extensively cultivated else- where in the tropics and is widely known under the name Sapote negro. Until recently its place of origin was uncertain. Because of its wide dissemination as a cultivated plant its nomenclatural history is complex, and for a long time it was known under erroneous or invalid names. Howard (1961) has recently established the correct name.
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Specimen
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VERAGUAS: above Santa Fe on slopes of Cerro Tute below Agricultural School, Gentry 6227 (FHO).
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Tag
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Project Name
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Tag
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