Morisonia speciosa | |
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Morisonia speciosa in Laguna Fortín General Díaz, Paraguay | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Brassicales |
Family: | Capparaceae |
Genus: | Morisonia |
Species: | M. speciosa |
Binomial name | |
Morisonia speciosa | |
Synonyms [2] | |
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Morisonia speciosa, commonly known as bola verde, is a species of tree in the family Capparaceae . It is native to the Gran Chaco region of Bolivia, Paraguay, western Brazil, and northern Argentina. It was formerly known under the scientific names Anisocapparis speciosa and Capparis speciosa. The fruit, seeds, and flowers of Morisonia speciosa are edible. The fruit is very sweet and has a spicy flavor reminiscent of mangoes. The Toba and Wichí peoples traditionally use it both culinarily and medicinally.
Morisonia speciosa was first described in scientific literature by August Grisebach as Capparis speciosa as published in Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen in 1879. It was transferred from the genus Capparis to the monotypic genus Anisocapparis following a description by Xavier Cornejo and Hugh Iltis published in a 2008 paper. [3] It was renamed Morisonia speciosa in 2018. [2]
Morisonia speciosa is commonly known as bola verde. Other common names for the species include amarguillo, anquitsuk, ancocha, palo verde, payaguá naranja, sacha limón, and sacha naranja. [4] The fruit is referred to as atsaj by the Wichí and neloma by the Qomle'ec (Toba) and in Pilagá. [5]
Morisonia speciosa is native to the Gran Chaco region and can be found in Bolivia, Paraguay, western Brazil, and northern Argentina. [6] [7] It grows in tropical dry broadleaf forests, sometimes co-occurring with carob trees. [5]
Morisonia speciosa is a tree or shrub that is 2–8 metres (6 ft 7 in – 26 ft 3 in) in height. It has a dense crown and foliage, with fine, tortuous branches and smooth, thornless, dark green bark. Its elliptic, green leaves are simple and alternate, ranging from 3–8 centimetres (1.2–3.1 in) in length and 2–4 centimetres (0.79–1.57 in) in width. The margins of the leaves are simple, with a prominent midrib on the underside, and often notched at the tip, with a small mucron or spine. [6]
Morisonia speciosa has flowers with anisosepalous calyces which are distinctively decussate-imbricate. The floral nectaries have four dimorphic scales. The pollen grains have a fine reticulate surface. [7] The yellowish flowers infloresce solitarily, reaching 3–5 centimetres (1.2–2.0 in) in length. [6]
The fruit of Morisonia speciosa are green spherical berries with a shiny exterior. They are 3–5 centimetres (1.2–2.0 in) in diameter and hang from long peduncles. They contain a yellow-orange pulp and four to eight dark, subglobose seeds [8] [6] which are strongly anisocotylary. They have a compact major cotyledon and a reduced or suppressed minor cotyledon. [7]
The fruit, seeds, and flowers of Morisonia speciosa are edible. The yellowish pulp of the fruit is very sweet and has a spicy flavor reminiscent of mangoes. [5] It is a significant source of dietary fiber, vitamin C and magnesium. [6] The seeds and pulp have naturally occurring antioxidants. [6]
The Toba and Wichí peoples have traditionally used Morisonia speciosa for culinary and medicinal purposes. [9] The fruits are ripe when they fall from the tree. Preservation of the fruit can be done through sun-drying, [5] and underripe fruit may be cooked. Preparation of the seeds involves boiling them and drying them in the sun. They are then crushed and made into flour or a puree that is often combined with oil or fat. [5] The flowers of Morisonia speciosa have a bitter taste that can be removed by boiling. [9] [10]
Traditional medicinal uses for Morisonia speciosa include treatments for toothaches, as an antidysenteric, and against "cold stomach". [11] The bark of Morisonia speciosa is ground and used in folk veterinary medicine for wound healing and as a treatment for skin myiasis. [12] The fruit has been known to be used for fishing bait and the leaves have been used to dye chaguar fibers. [13]
Fruits of the plant are also eaten by gray brockets. [14]
Capparis spinosa, the caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers.
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The Wichí are an indigenous people of South America. They are a large group of tribes ranging about the headwaters of the Bermejo River and the Pilcomayo River, in Argentina and Bolivia.
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Guaicuruan is a language family spoken in northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and Brazil. The speakers of the languages are often collectively called the Guaycuru peoples. For the most part, the Guaycuruans lived in the Gran Chaco and were nomadic and warlike, until finally subdued by the various countries of the region in the 19th century.
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Toba Qom is a Guaicuruan language spoken in South America by the Toba people. The language is known by a variety of names including Toba, Qom or Kom, Chaco Sur, and Toba Sur. In Argentina, it is most widely dispersed in the eastern regions of the provinces of Formosa and Chaco, where the majority of the approximately 19,810 speakers reside. The language is distinct from Toba-Pilagá and Paraguayan Toba-Maskoy. There are also 146 Toba speakers in Bolivia where it is known as Qom and in Paraguay where it is also known as Qob or Toba-Qom.
The Capparaceae, commonly known as the caper family, are a family of plants in the order Brassicales. As currently circumscribed, the family contains 15 genera and about 430 species. The largest genera are Capparis, Morisonia, Maerua, Boscia, and Cadaba.
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Capparis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Capparaceae. It includes 142 species of shrubs or lianas which are collectively known as caper shrubs or caperbushes. Capparis species occur over a wide range of habitat in the subtropical and tropical regions of Africa, Eurasia, Australasia, and the Pacific.
The Napalpí massacre occurred on 19 July 1924, in Napalpí a rural village in the Chaco Province of Northeast Argentina. It involved the massacre of 400 indigenous people of the Toba and Mocoví ethnicity by the Argentine Police and ranchers.
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Physalis pubescens is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family known by many common names, including husk tomato, low ground-cherry and hairy groundcherry in English, and muyaca and capulí in Spanish. It is native from Brazil, but also found in southern half of the United States, Mexico, Central and much of South America. It can be found elsewhere as an introduced species and sometimes a weed. It can grow in many types of habitat, including disturbed areas. This is an annual herb producing a glandular, densely hairy stem up to about 60 cm (24 in) in maximum height from a taproot. The oval or heart-shaped leaves are 3–9 cm (1.2–3.5 in) long and have smooth or toothed edges. The flowers blooming from the leaf axils are bell-shaped and about a centimeter long. They are yellow with five dark spots in the throats, and have five stamens tipped with blue anthers. The five-lobed calyx of sepals at the base of the flower enlarges as the fruit develops, becoming an inflated, ribbed, lanternlike structure 2–4 cm (0.79–1.57 in) long which contains the berry.
The Wichí languages are an indigenous language family spoken by the Wichí in northwestern Argentina and far-southeastern Bolivia, part of the Matacoan family. They are also known as Mataco, Wichi, Wichí Lhamtés, Weenhayek, Noctenes, Matahuayo, Matako, Weʃwo. The name Mataco is common but pejorative.
Morisonia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Capparaceae, found across the Americas from the United States to Argentina. They are typically shrubs or small trees. The genus was recently enlarged with New World Capparis species due to existing taxonomic instability.
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