''Annona tomentosa'' 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

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

and

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 ...

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 the dense woolly hairs ( in Latin) covering its branches and leaves.

Description

It is a bush reaching 0.5-1.5 meters in height. The younger branches are covered in yellow-brown, dense, woolly hairs. Its

internodes A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. It supports leaves, flowers and fruits, transports water and dissolved substances between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem, stores nutrien ...

are 1-4 centimeters long. Its petioles are 3-4 millimeters long and covered in dense woolly hairs. Its oblong to oval leaves are 7-19 by 3.5-9 centimeters. The leaves are rounded or indented at their base and come to a tapered point at their tip. The leaves are covered in dense hair on their upper and lower surfaces. The leaves have 8-18 secondary veins emanating at an acute angle from either side of the midrib. Inflorescences emerge between nodes and have 1-2 flowers. Its

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 ...

are 1.5 centimeters long and have two kidney-shaped

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 ...

s that enclose their base. Its rounded

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 come to a point at the tip, are covered in dense woolly hairs on their outer surface, and are hairless on their inner surface. Its outer petals are 1.7 by 2 centimeters and come to a taper point or have blunt tips. The outer surfaces of the outer petals are covered in dense grey-yellow hairs. Its inner petals are 0.6-0.7 by 2 centimeters, have a keeled back and come to a point at their tip. 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 ...

s are 3 millimeters long. 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 covered in dense white hairs.

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''Annona tenuiflora'' is shed as permanent tetrads. Pollinators include

Cyclocephala ''Cyclocephala'' is a genus of scarab beetles from the subfamily Dynastinae (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae). Beetles of this genus occur from southeastern Canada to Argentina and the West Indies. Adults of this genus are nocturnal or crepuscular, an ...

beetles.

Habitat and distribution

It has been observed in fields with dry sand dunes.

Uses

It is used in Brazilian traditional medicine and extracts from the leaves have been reported to provide

antinociceptive Nociception (also nocioception, from Latin ''nocere'' 'to harm or hurt') is the Somatosensory system, sensory nervous system's process of encoding Noxious stimulus, noxious stimuli. It deals with a series of events and processes required for an org ...

pain relief and have

anti-inflammatory Anti-inflammatory is the property of a substance or treatment that reduces inflammation or swelling. Anti-inflammatory drugs, also called anti-inflammatories, make up about half of analgesics. These drugs remedy pain by reducing inflammation as o ...

activity in studies with mice.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15398395 tomentosa Flora of Bolivia Flora of Brazil Traditional Brazilian medicine Plants described in 1906 Taxa named by Robert Elias Fries