''Manilkara rufula'' is a species of

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

in the Sapodilla family. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to the northeastern

submontane Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topograph ...

forests of

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest ...

Sergipe Sergipe (), officially State of Sergipe, is a state of Brazil. Located in the Northeast Region along the Atlantic coast of the country, Sergipe is the smallest state in Brazil by geographical area at , larger only than the Federal District. S ...

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the ...

Paraíba Paraíba ( Tupi: ''pa'ra a'íba''; ) is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and it is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Paraíb ...

Ceará Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of th ...

and

Piauí Piaui (, ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piaui has the shortest coastline of any coastal Brazilian state at 66 ...

states of

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 ...

. Although this species exists in many places, where it occurs it is either not numerous, or its numbers are declining due to

loss of habitat Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

Ecology

''Manilkara rufula'', along with its speciatic cousins ''M. longifolia'' and ''M. maxima'', provide nectar as food for a

primate Primates are a diverse order (biology), order of mammals. They are divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include the Tarsiiformes, tarsiers and ...

called the golden-headed lion tamarin (''

Leontopithecus chrysomelas The golden-headed lion tamarin (''Leontopithecus chrysomelas''), also the golden-headed tamarin, is a lion tamarin endemic to Brazil. It is found only in the lowland and premontane tropical forest fragments in the state of Bahia, and therefore is ...

''). Both tree and tamarin are only found in those remnants of Atlantic forest remaining in the northeastern region of Brazil. This habitat has long been disappearing through decades of intensive logging, followed by further disturbance in the converting of logged land to

subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no ...

. What is left of said habitat comprises less than four percent of its original area. These small habitats, islands of forest called "brejos", are fragments of moist forest

caatinga Caatinga (, ) is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation" (''caa'' = forest, v ...

s, surrounded on every side by either dry forest caatingas, or by

cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are ...

s, swaths of shrubby vegetation resembling

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

, where ''M. rufula'' cannot grow. Unlike its dryer neighbors, caatinga moist forests occur primarily along inaccessible ridges and on solitary prominences, and are deluged by tropical rains measuring from 1,000 to 1,300 mm annually. ''Manilkara rufula'', along with some of its tree species associates (''

Podocarpus sellowii ''Podocarpus sellowii'' is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is found only in Brazil. Description ''Podocarpus sellowii'' grows as a small tree. Lichens and mosses grow epiphytically on the tree. Distribution and habitat ''P ...

'', ''

Prunus sphaerocarpa ''Prunus myrtifolia'', called the West Indies cherry or myrtle laurel cherry, is a New World species of shrubs in the family Rosaceae. Description ''Prunus myrtifolia'' is a spineless, evergreen tree up to 12 metres (40 feet) tall, not forming c ...

'', for example) is a remnant of an earlier climatological regime, when the northeast region as a whole was far moister than most of it is today. A prisoner both geographically and genetically, ''M. rufula'' is prevented from further spread by the less-than-ideal arid growing conditions all around it.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5434536 rufula Plants described in 1863 Near threatened plants Flora of Brazil Taxonomy articles created by Polbot