Hymenaea stigonocarpa
| Hymenaea stigonocarpa | |
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| Hymenaea stigonocarpa | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Subfamily: | Detarioideae |
| Genus: | Hymenaea |
| Species: | H. stigonocarpa |
| Binomial name | |
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Hymenaea stigonocarpa Mart. ex Hayne, 1830 |
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Hymenaea stiginocarpa is an irregularly shaped, mostly 6–9 m (20–30 ft) high a tree that has been assigned to the pea family. It has a twisted spindle-shaped trunk, a very rough grey bark, and reddish-brown twigs. The deciduous leaves consist of two large asymmetrical leaflets with an entire margin. The flowers occur in clusters of up to thirty at the end of the branches. It produces edible, highly appreciated fruits, which are often collected from the wild and used by local people. The vernacular name of this species in Brazil is jatobá do cerrado.
Friedrich Gottlob Hayne, a German botanist, first scientifically described our plant in 1830 as Hymenaea stigonocarpa, a name that had been used before by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, and was based on a specimen collected from a seasonally dry forest type, locally known as Caatinga, in the state of Piauí, north-eastern Brazil, during his 1817-1820 expedition. In 1870 however, George Bentham applied the name to specimens collected in the Cerrado of Central Brazil, and the name has since been used in association with specimens from the Cerrado. In addition he created the subspecies pubescens. João Barbosa Rodrigues, one of the most famous Brazilian botanists, in 1898 distinguished H. chapadensis, as well as H. correana, both of which were later considered synonyms of H. stigononcarpa subsp. pubescens. In 1925, Adolpho Ducke assigned the name Hymenaea velutina to specimens collected in north-eastern Brazil, which also became widely used for specimens from Caatinga. Recently, it has been established that the original material used to describe H. stigonocarpa belongs to the same species as the type of H. velutina. It has now been proposed to conserve the name H. velutina over H. stigonocarpa Hayne, and to continue applying H. stigonocarpa to the species from the Cerrado as used by Bentham.
Hymenaea stigonocarpa has twenty four chromosomes (2n=24). It is a low to medium height deciduous tree of 5–20 m (16–66 ft) and a diameter of up to 50 cm (20 in) at breast height. It has a twisted trunk covered by a thick rough grey bark and reddish-brown twigs. Its leaves are alternately set, and consist of two leathery, kidney-shaped to ovate leaflets of 6–24 cm (2.4–9.4 in) long and 3.5–7 cm (1.4–2.8 in) wide, with quickly falling bracts (so-called stipules) at their base. The flowers of this species are the largest in the genus, and the petals are somewhat larger than the sepals. The five sepals are thick and are deflected when the flowers have opened. The five white petals are approximately 22 mm (0.87 in) long and 12 mm (0.47 in) wide and are set on the edge of a broad hypanthium. Ten free, white, 40 mm (1.6 in) long filaments are tipped by 9 mm (0.35 in) long anthers. In the middle of the hypanthium is a single, fleshy carpel on a short, 6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) long stalk, which is tipped by a long curved white style implanted at an angle, with a bud-shaped wet grainy stigma at the tip. Up to thirty flowers are set in inflorescences at the tip of the branches, subtended by bracts. The species depends on cross-pollination and is pollinated mainly by bats. Self-fertilised flowers are aborted after a week. The ripe fruit is light to dark brown with small and regularly spaced light glands, dry, indehiscent, leathery legume of 9–20 cm (3.5–7.9 in), 2–6.5 cm (0.79–2.56 in) wide and 2–4.3 cm (0.79–1.69 in) thick, with a rounded base, a slightly pointed tip, and a straight or wavy margin. The mesocarp and endocarp have been transformed into yellowish, soft, fibrous, slightly sweet flour-rich pulp with a characteristic smell. A prominent suture line surrounds the entire legume. Fruits are ripe between April and July in the Federal District, July to November in Mato Grosso do Sul and August in Minas Gerais. It contains one to six seeds. These seeds are redish-brown, oval, side-ways compressed, 18–28 mm (0.71–1.10 in) long and 9–20 mm (0.35–0.79 in) thick, with rounded tip and base, an irregular surface and some depressions. Overly ripe fruits emit an unpleasant smell.
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