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(Last Modified On 4/2/2013)
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(Last Modified On 4/2/2013)
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Species
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Manilkara bidentata (DC.) Chevalier
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PlaceOfPublication
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Revue Bot. Appl. & Arg. Trop. 12: 270, 1932.
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Synonym
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Mimusops darienensis Pittier, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 249, 1917. Manilkara darienensis (Pittier) Standley, Trop. Woods 31: 45, 1932.
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Description
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Tree to 35 m. Leaves with petioles 1.3-4.2 cm long; blades narrowly obovate or sometimes elliptic, obtuse or rounded to shallowly emarginate or short-acu- minate, 6-30 cm long, 3-12 cm broad, glabrous, the primary laterals fine and rather closely spaced, occasionally subobscure. Flowers 3-12 per fascicle, the fas- cicles axillary to both leaves and leaf-scars; pedicels glabrous, 1.2-3 cm long; sepals ovate or ovate-oblong, 4-6 mm long, the inner minutely appressed-sericeous, the outer soon glabrate; corolla 5-7 mm long, subrotate, the tube ca 1/5 the total length, the lobes narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, the dorsal appendages as broad as and usually slightly longer than the lobes, free from the lobes to the tube, distally divided for ca 2/3 of their length into 2 or 3 slender lanceolate segments; staminodes 1.2-3 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, erose; staminal filaments equalling or slightly exceeding the staminodes; ovary glabrate, the style glabrous, 4-5 mm long. Fruit smooth or slightly roughened, globose or ellipsoid-globose, 2-3.5 cm long.
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Habit
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Tree
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Distribution
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Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Lesser Antilles, northern South America and Panama.
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Specimen
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BOCAS DEL TORO: S. loc., Cox s.n. (US). CANAL ZONE: hills aroud Gatiln, Pittier 2699 (US). PANAMA: nr Chepo, Kluge 55 (US). SAN BLAS: hills nr Puerto Obaldia, Pittier 4318 (holotype of Mimusops darienensis US), 4384 (US).
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Note
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Manilkara bidentata is important as a source of balata, a nonelastic rubber obtained from the latex which is a nonconductor, resistant to water. Balata and a similar product, gutta-percha (obtained from another member of the Sa-potaceae), are used in the construction of marine cable, machine belting, telephone receivers, golf balls, waterproofing, adhesives and a number of other items.
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