''Annona crassivenia'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the family

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...

. It is native to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

William Edwin Safford William Edwin Safford (December 14, 1859, Chillicothe, Ohio – January 10, 1926) was an American botanist, ethnologist, and educator employed by the U.S. Navy and federal government. Safford graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1880 and pursu ...

, the American botanist who first formally described the species, named it after the thick ( in Latin) tertiary veins ( in Latin) that interconnect the secondary veins of its leaves.

Description

It is a tree. Its mature hairless gray-brown branches and

lenticel A lenticel is a porous tissue consisting of cells with large intercellular spaces in the periderm of the secondarily thickened organs and the bark of woody stems and roots of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It functions as a pore, providing a ...

s. Its oval leaves are 5.5-7.8 by 4.5-7 centimeters and have rounded or notched tips. The mature leaves are hairless or sparsely hairy on their upper surface, the lower surface has rust-colored hairs on its veins. The leaves have 9-11 pairs of secondary veins emanating from their midribs and distinctly thick tertiary veins interconnecting the secondary veins. Its petioles 4-5 millimeters long, covered in rust-colored hair, and have a groove on their upper side. Its inflorescences consist of solitary flowers on peduncles that are 10-13 millimeters long and covered in rust-colored hairs. The peduncles are subtended by a wooly

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

eole. Its small

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s are fused at their base to form a 4 millimeter wide calyx. It has 6 petals arranged in two rows. The outer petals are 24 by 4 millimeters and taper to a pointed tip. The outer surface of the outer petals is covered in pale red hairs and the inner surface is covered in fine gray hairs. The short inner petals are up to 1.3 millimeters long and covered in red wooly hairs. Its flowers have numerous

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s that are 1.3 millimeters long, with brown filaments and anthers that are 0.85 millimeters long. The tissue connecting the lobes of the anthers form a round cap. Its flowers have numerous

carpels Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

that are crowded together for form a cone. Its

ovaries The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. T ...

are 0.85 millimeters, covered straight, white ascending hairs. Its oblong styles are tapered and are topped by stigmas with a ventral suture. Its immature oval fruit are 4.3 by 4.1 centimeters and covered in rust-colored wooly hairs. Its fruit have numerous seeds that are 6 by 11 millimeters with a thin shell.

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''Annona crassivenia'' is shed as permanent tetrads.

References

External links

* crassivenia Flora of Cuba Species described in 1914 Taxa named by William Edwin Safford Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Annonaceae-stub