ISHS Acta Horticulturae 275: International Symposium on the Culture of Subtropical and Tropical Fruits and Crops
PERSEA TOLIMANENSIS: A NEW SPECIES FOR CENTRAL AMERICA |
| Authors: | G.A. Zentmyer, E. Schieber |
| Abstract:
A true wild avocado that we have observed and collected for many years in Central America in the search for resistance to Phytophthora root rot is known to the natives as "Aguacate de Mico," or in El Salvador also as "Aguacamico". We regard this tree as one of the ancestors of the Guatemalan Criollos (Persea americana var. guatemalensis). The first collection was made in 1954 by the senior author in El Boqueron, a crater of the volcano San Salvador in El Salvador. Since then we have also found Aguacate de Mico in moderately warm regions of Central America, in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, generally at elevations from 900 to 1500 m. We are naming this tree as a new species of Persea, P. tolimanensis, since a concentration of these trees which we have been observing for 14 years occurs on the slopes of the volcano Toliman in Guatemala. This species is characterized by the thick-skinned fruit that is not edible and has a bitter taste. It is eaten by monkeys, hence the Aguacate de Mico. Fruit is round to oblate, with a slightly roughened skin and dark green colour; fruit average 60 to 80 mm in diameter, and persist on the tree long after they are mature. The seed is very large and oblate. Leaves are similar in texture, size, and in number of primary veins, to the leaves of P. americana var. guatemalensis. The inflorescence is subterminal and either compact or loose. The tree does not have the typical shape of the avocado tree. Branching begins high in the canopy; trees are very vigorous and may reach a height of 20 m. They have whitish-grey trunks. | |
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