Helicostylis tomentosa
Helicostylis tomentosa | ||||||||||||
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![]() Helicostylis tomentosa |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Helicostylis tomentosa | ||||||||||||
( Poepp. & Endl. ) Rusby |
Helicostylis tomentosa is a tree in the mulberry family from central to northern South America to southern Central America .
description
Vegetative characteristics
Helicostylis tomentosa grows as an evergreen tree 20–30 meters high. The tree carries a poisonous, yellowish latex .
The simple, short-stalked and slightly leathery leaves are elliptical or lanceolate to oblong. They are up to 32 centimeters long and up to 15 centimeters wide and lighter underneath. The short petiole is about 1.5 inches long. The leaves are acuminate to acuminate and entire. The veins are pinnate and lighter and raised underneath. The leaves are glossy on top and slightly hairy or slightly scaly and on the underside somewhat finely tufted to felted. There are small stipules present.
Generative characteristics
Helicostylis tomentosa is single or dioecious, single or mixed sex, diocesan or monocular . Axillary, unisexual male and female, small hemispherical to almost round and multi-flowered inflorescences are formed. The inflorescences are each up to 8 millimeters in size with a disc-shaped inflorescence base with many small, hairy bracts in several circles (4-8) and the short inflorescence stalk is each fine-haired. The yellowish male inflorescences of many flowers stand together in larger groups. The greenish female inflorescences, from up to 12–15 flowers, stand alone or together with 1–2 male. The small unisexual flowers each have a simple, usually four-part, only about 1.5-2 millimeters long, fine-haired flower shell.
In the female, usually almost sessile flowers is ovary upper constant (half) with a lateral, partly hairy pen filamentous long with two, sometimes twisted, scars branches . The male, stalked flowers usually have 4 stamens, rarely 2 are transformed into staminodes or are completely absent.
About 3–5 centimeters in size, orange to yellow and fleshy dummy fruits or fruit associations are formed. They consist of the fruity, fleshy perianth and up to 4–10 separate, small, approximately 6–10 millimeters large, solitary stone fruits with a gelatinous pericarp . The brown, smooth stone cores ( seeds ) are about 5–9 millimeters long.
Systematics
The first description of Basionyms Olmedia tomentosa was made in 1838 by Eduard Friedrich Poeppig and Stephan Endlicher in Nova genera ac Species Plantarum 2: 32, t. 145. The division into the new genus Helicostylis takes place in 1896 by Henry Hurd Rusby in Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club 6 (1): 120. Some synonyms are known.
use
The fruits are sweet, tasty, and edible, and the rind can be used medicinally. The medium-hard wood can be used for various applications.
literature
- J. Lanjouw, AL Stoffers: Flora of Suriname. Vol. 5, Part 1: Moraceae , Brill, 1975, ISBN 90-04-04268-7 , p. 219 ff.
- YMBC Arruda, ID Kossmann Ferraz, AM da Silva Mendes: Morfologia do fruto, das sementes e dos estádios iniciais de desenvolvimento de Helicostylis tomentosa. In: Pesquisa Florestal Brasileira. Vol. 37, No. 92, 2017, pp. 523-530, doi: 10.4336 / 2017.pfb.37.92.1439 .
Web links
- Helicostylis tomentosa at Useful Tropical Plants.