Dicotyledon | Literature for Persea americana
Smith, 1981; Lorence & Wagner, 2020. |
Lauraceae -- The Laurel Family | Bibliography |
Persea americana | |
Common name(s): avocado, alligator pear |
General Information | ||
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Distribution | Native to Central America, widely cultivated for its edible fruit.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Kaua`i, O`ahu, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. |
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Habit |
Tree, often large; young branches terete, glabrate, often with conspicuous leaf scars. |
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Leaves |
Leaves alternate, petiolate; blade dark green on adaxial surface, abaxial surface pale green, variable in shape and size, but usually elliptic, 10‒25 cm long, 5‒10 cm wide, margin entire. |
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Flowers |
Inflorescences pubescent, shorter than leaves, clustered at the tips of the branches or on short, lateral young branches. Flowers with tepals equal, ca. 5 mm long, densely pubescent; fertile stamens 9, staminodia present, anthers tetrathecal; ovary pubescent. |
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Fruit |
Fruit large, globose to pyriform, to 20 cm long, 10 cm wide, not subtended by persistent tepals, cupule absent. |
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Seeds |
Seed 1, subglobose, to 5 cm in diameter, with thin, papery testa. |
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Chromosomes |
2n = 24, 36, 48. |
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Contributor |
David Lorence |