Asimina pygmaea

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Asimina pygmaea
Asiminapygmaea03.jpg
Asimina pygmaea fruit
Status TNC G4.svg
Apparently Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Magnoliids
Order: Magnoliales
Family: Annonaceae
Genus: Asimina
Species:
A. pygmaea
Binomial name
Asimina pygmaea
Synonyms

Annona pygmaeaW.Bartram
Asimina secundifloraShuttlew. ex Chapm.
Orchidocarpum pygmaeum(W.Bartram) Michx.
Pityothamnus pygmaeus(W.Bartram) Small
Unona pygmaea(W.Bartram) Walp.
Uvaria pygmaea(W.Bartram) Torr. & A.Gray

Contents

Asimina pygmaea, the dwarf pawpaw or gopher berry, is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Florida and Georgia in the United States. [2] William Bartram, the American naturalist who first formally described the species using the basionym Annona pygmaea, named it after its dwarfed (pygmaeus in Latin) stature. [3] [4]

Description

It is a bush reaching 20-30 centimeters in height. It has a spindle-shaped taproot from which one or more branched, or unbranched shoots emerge. Its shoots have red to brown bark with lenticels. Its leathery leaves are 4-11 centimeters long and have rounded or blunt tips, occasionally with a notch. The margins of the leaves are rolled toward their underside. The leaves are dark green and hairless on their upper surface and paler on their underside with a networked pattern of veins. Its twisted petioles are 3-10 millimeters long. Its flowers are on thin, 1.5-4 centimeter long axillary peduncles. Its flowers are a brown-crimson color with a strong yeasty or rotting flesh smell. Its flowers have 6 petals, arranged in two rows of three. Its oblong to oval, fleshy, outer petals are 1.5-3 centimeters long and rolled downward toward their outer surface. Its fleshy, oval inner petals are 0.5-2 centimeters long, deeper in color than the outer petals. The base of the inner petals are swollen, and wrinkled on the inner surface. The tips of the inner petals are rolled back. The stamens are globular, 4-7 millimeters wide and light green to pink at maturity. Its flowers have 2-5 carpels. Its fruit are yellow-green, curved cylinders, 3-4 centimeters in length. The fruit have brown, shiny seeds, each 1 centimeter in length, arranged in two rows. [5] [6] [7]

Botanical illustration of Asimina pygmaea Asimina pygmaea.jpg
Botanical illustration of Asimina pygmaea

Reproductive biology

The pollen of Asimina pygmaea is shed as permanent tetrads. [8] It is pollinated by the dark flower scarab beetle Euphoria sepulcralis . [9] Its flowers produce several scent compounds including dimethyl sulfide which is associated with carrion odor and may attract beetle pollinators. [10]

Habitat and distribution

It has been observed growing in well-drained sandy soils, in pine flatwoods, savannahs and old fields. [10] [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Asimina</i> North American Genus of fruit trees

Asimina is a genus of small trees or shrubs described as a genus in 1763. Asimina is the only temperate genus in the tropical and subtropical flowering plant family, Annonaceae.

<i>Asimina pulchella</i> Species of flowering plant

Asimina pulchella is a rare species of flowering plant in the custard apple family known by the common names beautiful pawpaw, royal false pawpaw, and white squirrel banana. It is a federal listed endangered species.

<i>Asimina rugelii</i> Species of plant

Asimina rugelii is a rare species of flowering plant in the custard apple family known by the common names Rugel's pawpaw, Rugel's false pawpaw, and yellow squirrel banana. It is endemic to Volusia County, Florida, in the United States, where there are fewer than 5000 plants remaining in severely fragmented habitat. The main threat to this species is habitat destruction and degradation. It was federally listed as an endangered species in 1986.

Annona acutiflora is a species of plant in the Annonaceae family. It is native to Brazil. Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, the German botanist who first formally described the species, named it after the inner petals which come to a sharp point.

<i>Annona cascarilloides</i> Species of flowering plant

Annona cascarilloides is a species of plant in the Annonaceae family. It is endemic to Cuba. According to William Edwin Safford, the species was named it after the pattern of its leaf veins which resemble species of a different genus, that at the time Safford was writing was called Cascarilla, but is now synonymous with the genera Croton and Ladenbergia. Despite this assertion by Safford, August Grisebach, the German botanist who first formally described the species, makes no mention of Cascarilla in his 1866 entry.

<i>Asimina reticulata</i> Species of plant

Asimina reticulata, the netted pawpaw, is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Florida in the United States.

Goniothalamus expansus is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Thailand and Vietnam. William Grant Craib, the British botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its expanded stigmas.

Goniothalamus grandiflorus is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. It was first formally described by Otto Warburg, a German-Jewish botanist, using the basionym Beccariodendron grandiflorum after its big flowers.

Goniothalamus latestigma is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Myanmar and Thailand. Cecil Ernest Claude Fischer, the botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its broad stigmas.

Goniothalamus puncticulifolius is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Borneo and The Philippines. Elmer Drew Merrill, the American botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its minutely spotted leaves.

Mitrephora alba is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Peninsular Malaysia. Henry Nicholas Ridley, the English botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its white flowers.

<i>Mitrephora heyneana</i> Species of plant in the family Annonaceae

Mitrephora heyneana is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to India and Sri Lanka. Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomas Thomson, the British botanists who first formally described the species under the basionym Orophea heyneana, named it after Benjamin Heyne a German botanist who collected and described many plant species from India.

<i>Mitrephora keithii</i> Species of plant in the family Annonaceae

Mitrephora keithii is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand. Henry Nicholas Ridley, the English botanist who first formally described the species, named it in honor of Dr. A. Keith who collected the sample that Ridley examined.

Mitrephora macclurei is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to China, Laos and Vietnam. Aruna Weerasooriya and Richard Saunders, the botanists who first formally described the species, named it after Floyd Alonzo McClure of Lingnan University, who collected the holotype specimen that they examined.

Mitrephora calcarea is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Laos and Vietnam. Aruna Weerasooriya and Richard M.K. Saunders, the botanists who provided the first valid formal description of the species, named it after the limy soil it grows in. The name follows a prior invalid account by Suzanne Jovet-Ast, which lacked a Latin description.

Mitrephora macrocarpa is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Sulawesi. Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel, the Dutch botanist who first formally described the species using the basionym Orophea macrocarpa, named it after its large fruit.

<i>Mitrephora polypyrena</i> Species of plant in the family Annonaceae

Mitrephora polypyrena is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, and Myanmar. Carl Ludwig Blume, the German botanist who first formally described the species using the basionym Uvaria polypyrena, named it after the many stones or seeds in its fruit.

Pseuduvaria glabrescens is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to Australia. L.W. Jessup, the botanist who first formally described the species using the synonym Pseuduvaria mulgraveana var. glabrescens, named it after the underside of its leaves which have the quality of becoming hairless as they mature.

<i>Pseuduvaria megalopus</i> Species of plant in the family Annonaceae

Pseuduvaria megalopus is a species of plant in the family Annonaceae. It is native to New Guinea. Karl Schumann, the German botanist who first formally described the species using the synonym Petalolophus megalopus, named it after the large wings that extend downwards from the underside of the inner petals to form a foot of dark red tissue that resembles carrion and is thought to attract fly pollinators.

Xylopia polyantha is a species of plant in the Annonaceae family. It is native to Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Robert Elias Fries, the botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its many flowers.

References

  1. "NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  2. "Asimina pygmaea (W.Bartram) Dunal". Plants of the World Online. The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. n.d. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
  3. Stearn, William (2004). Botanical Latin. Portland, Ore. Newton Abbot: Timber Press David & Charles. ISBN   9780881926279.
  4. Bartram, William (1791). Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, etc. Philadelphia: James and Johnson. p. 18.
  5. Dunal, Michel Félix (1817). Monographie de la Famille des Anonacées (in French and Latin). Paris: chez Treuttel et Würtz. p. 84.
  6. Brett, M.; Calloway, Dorothy M. (1992). "Our Native Pawpaw: The Next New Commercial Fruit?". Arnoldia. 52 (43): 20–29.
  7. 1 2 Kral, Robert (1960). "A Revision of Asimina and Deeringothamnus (Annonaceae)". Brittonia. 12 (4): 233–278. doi:10.2307/2805119. ISSN   0007-196X. JSTOR   2805119. S2CID   35766955.
  8. Walker, James W. (1971). "Pollen Morphology, Phytogeography, and Phylogeny of the Annonaceae". Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. 202 (202): 1–130. JSTOR   41764703.
  9. Norman, Eliane M.; Clayton, David (1986). "Reproductive Biology of two Florida Pawpaws: Asimina obovata and A. pygmaea (Annonaceae)". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. 113 (1): 16. doi:10.2307/2996229. ISSN   0040-9618. JSTOR   2996229.
  10. 1 2 Goodrich, Katherine R.; Raguso, Robert A. (2009). "The olfactory component of floral display in Asimina and Deeringothamnus (Annonaceae)". New Phytologist. 183 (2): 457–469. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02868.x . ISSN   0028-646X. PMID   19594704.