''Annona rigida'' 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

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Robert Elias Fries (Klas) Robert Elias Fries (11 July 1876, Uppsala – 29 January 1966, Stockholm), the youngest son of Theodor Magnus Fries (1832–1913) and grandson of Elias Magnus Fries(1794–1878) and an expert on mushrooms. A Swedish botanist who was a mem ...

, the Swedish botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its rigid ( in Latin) leaves.

Description

It is a bush. Its rigid, oblong, yellow-green leaves are 12-20 by 3-5 centimeters, hairless and have pointed tips. Its solitary flowers are on thick, rigid

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

that are 0.5-1 centimeter long with a 3-5 millimeter oval

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 ...

near their base. Its oval to triangular

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 4-5 millimeters long, recurved and come to a point at their tip. It has two rows of petals. The oval, wrinkled, warty outer petals are 3 by 2 centimeters. The outer petals have margins that touch but are not fused. The outer surface of the inner petals is covered in dense woolly hairs. Its

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 ...

are 5 millimeters long. Its immature fruit are round with a diameter of 2–3.5 centimeters and covered in conical projections. 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'' ...

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''A. rigida'' is shed as permanent tetrads.

Distribution and habitat

It grows in the Amazon rainforest.

References

External links

* rigida Flora of Brazil Flora of Colombia Plants described in 1957 Taxa named by Robert Elias Fries {{Annonaceae-stub