''Meiogyne cylindrocarpa'', commonly known as fingersop or native apricot in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, is a small tree or

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

in the custard apple 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 ...

, native to parts of

tropical Asia Tropical Asia refers to the entirety of the areas in Asia with a tropical climate. These areas are of geographic and economic importance due to their natural resources and biodiversity, which include many species of agricultural value. There are 16 ...

and

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

Description

''Meiogyne cylindrocarpa'' is an

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

plant with an open

habit A habit (or wont, as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. A 1903 paper in the '' American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...

. It will grow to high, and perhaps . The dark green leaves are held on petioles about long, and measure up to long by wide, with 7 to 13 pairs of secondary

veins Veins () are blood vessels in the circulatory system of humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are those of the pulmonary and fetal c ...

. They are glossy above and glabrescent (minutely hairy) underneath. The flowers may be solitary or paired, with six fleshy, triangular petals arranged in two whorls of three. The outer petals measure up to long by wide. The fruit are elongated and cylindrical in shape. They measure up to long and diameter, and are initially green, becoming orange or red when ripe, and they contain up to 9 disc-like seeds up to 9 mm diameter. They are edible and sweet and have been compared to a

sapodilla ''Manilkara zapota'', commonly known as sapodilla (), sapote, chicozapote, chicoo, chicle, naseberry, nispero, or soapapple, among other names, is an evergreen tree native to southern Mexico and Central America. An example natural occurrence is ...

with a floral flavour.

Taxonomy

This plant was first described in 1909 as ''Mitrephora cylindrocarpa'' by the Dutch botanist

William Burck William Burck (4 February 1848 in Monnickendam, the Netherlands – 25 September 1910 in Leiden, the Netherlands)Cornelis Andries Backer Cornelis Andries Backer (1874–1963) was a Dutch Botany, botanist and Fern, pteridologist. He was born on 18 September 1874 in Oudenbosch and died on 22 February 1963 at Heemstede, The Netherlands. He stayed thirty years in the Dutch East Indies ...

, where it remained until 1994 when it was again transferred to a new genus and given the current combination by E.C.H. van Heusden, also from the Netherlands.

Distribution and habitat

''Meiogyne cylindrocarpa'' is found from Vietnam southwards through

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms. It is a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical kingdom. It was first recognized as a distinct region ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

in Australia, and eastwards through the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

to the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...

. It also occurs in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. It grows in drier types of rainforest such as

monsoon forest Seasonal tropical forest, also known as moist deciduous, semi-evergreen seasonal, tropical mixed or monsoon forest, typically contains a range of tree species: only some of which drop some or all of their leaves during the dry season. This tropic ...

, in rocky areas and gullies.

Ecology

This plant is a host plant for larvae of the pale green triangle butterfly ''

Graphium eurypylus ''Graphium eurypylus'', the great jay or pale green triangle, is a species of tropical butterfly belonging to the family Papilionidae. Etymology The specific name ''eurypylus'' likely comes from the name Eurypylus, a Thessalian king who lead t ...

''. The fruit are eaten by fruit doves.

Conservation

This species has been assessed as being of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

by both the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

and by the Queensland Government under its Nature Conservation Act.

Cultivation

Fingersop is typically propagated by seeds, taking anywhere from two weeks to six months to germinate. Seedlings of ''M. c.'' subsp. ''cylindrocarpa'' tend to be smaller, with a bushier form than ''M. c.'' subsp. ''trichocarpa'', which is more erect. Trees bear fruit after five to six years, but when

grafted Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion () while the lower part is called the rootstock. The succ ...

, will produce much sooner and develop a smaller, more compact form. The plant is available in Australia and elsewhere from plant nurseries.

Gallery

File:Meiogyne-cylindrocarpa-SF22355-11.jpg, Habit File:Meiogyne-cylindrocarpa-SF23225-02.jpg, Flower and foliage File:Meiogyne-cylindrocarpa-SF23225-03.jpg File:Meiogyne-cylindrocarpa-SF23030-01.jpg, Unripe fruit File:Meiogyne-cylindrocarpa-SF23031-03.jpg, Fruit and seeds File:Meiogyne cylindrocarpa (paipai) new leaves, Guam.jpg, New leaves

References

External links

View a map
of collections and observations of this species at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (

GBIF The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around the ...

)
View observations
of this species on

iNaturalist iNaturalist is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. iNaturalist may be accessed via its web ...

See images
of this species on Flickriver.com {{Taxonbar, from=Q15363200 cylindrocarpa Flora of Malesia Flora of Papuasia Flora of Vanuatu Flora of Western Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland Taxa named by William Burck Plants described in 1909