Spondias
Content
Description
Trees, wholly or partly deciduous, rarely hemi-epiphytes.
Leaves spiral, impari-pinnate, rarely bipinnate (extra-Mal.), or simple (extra-Mal.), petioled.
Inflorescences paniculate, rarely racemiform, terminal and/or axillary, appearing before the leaves or accompanied by very young ones.
Flowers bisexual, or unisexual (extra-Mal.).
Petals 5 (or 4), valvate, glabrous.
Stamens 10 (or 8);
Ovary 5- (or 4-), or 1-celled, glabrous;
Seed with testa free from the endocarp;
Distribution
American tropics present
Species 10, in the Indo-Malesian and American tropics; four of them, i.e. S. cytherea, S. pinnata, S. purpurea, and S. mombin, are often (widely or locally) cultivated in the tropics.
Uses
Cultivated for the edible fruit which is generally sour, though some varieties are sweet or have a mawkish taste; it is eaten, usually after cooking, as pickles or flavouring. All parts of the plants have a foetid smell of turpentine when broken or bruised; the smell differs in each species and is characteristic. The flowers are honey-sweet like those of mango. Hog-plum trees flower and fruit throughout the year, though chiefly after dry weather. The inflorescences develop at the ends of the bare twigs either before the new leaves or with them and the fruits dangle from the leafy twigs. Flower and fruit are generally to be seen together on the same tree ().
Notes
AIRY SHAW & FORMAN () in their study of the genus Spondias stated that in tribe Spondiadeae the genera Solenocarpus, Allo spondias, and Spondias differ from other members by the valvate aestivation of the petals; in these three genera, Solenocarpus was only distinguished from the two others by having a monocarpellary ovary (against the ovary being composed of 5 or 4, occasionally more or only 3, united carpels). They concluded that "there is such a lack of correlation between the various characters that an adequate basis for the recognition of more than one genus is wanting"; therefore, they reduced Solenocarpus and Allospondias to Spondias.
The endocarp of most species has the most complex structure in the Anacardiaceae. AIRY SHAW & FORMAN already described their macromorphological structure in detail and gave illustrations for those species with material available (l.c. ). According to them, the endocarp appears to consist of two zones: (1) an inner, hard, woody layer with irregular (5 or 4) flanges which are either rather smooth or bear sparse to numerous, radiating, straight or curved, spinose or fibrous processes, and (2) an outer layer which is composed of loose or dense bundles coalesced into a simple or complex network; these two layers are connected with each other by the flanges, or spinose and fibrous processes (cf. ; in the present revision; also note under S. cytherea).
The endocarp of most species has the most complex structure in the Anacardiaceae. AIRY SHAW & FORMAN already described their macromorphological structure in detail and gave illustrations for those species with material available (l.c. ). According to them, the endocarp appears to consist of two zones: (1) an inner, hard, woody layer with irregular (5 or 4) flanges which are either rather smooth or bear sparse to numerous, radiating, straight or curved, spinose or fibrous processes, and (2) an outer layer which is composed of loose or dense bundles coalesced into a simple or complex network; these two layers are connected with each other by the flanges, or spinose and fibrous processes (cf. ; in the present revision; also note under S. cytherea).