THE IDENTITY OF UCUQUI 
BY 
Joao Murea Pires' and Ricuarp Evans ScHULTES?’ 
ONE of the results of recent field work in the upper 
Rio Negro basin of Brazil has been the identification of 
a useful plant of that area—the ueuqui. The fruit of this 
tree has an edible and delicious mesocarp and is an impor- 
tant part of the diet of the native peoples of the region. 
Investigation has shown that the uweuqui is an unde- 
scribed species of the sapotaceous genus Pouteria. It is 
altogether fitting that, in publishing a description of this 
food plant, we employ as a specific epithet the common 
name which refers exclusively to this species over the 
greater part of its range. 
Pouteria Ucuqui is immediately set apart from all other 
species of the genus by the excessively developed disk 
which surrounds the ovary. 
Pouteria Ucuqui Pires & Schultes sp. nov. 
Arbor enormis, usque ad centum viginti pedes alta, 
radicibus tabularibus, trunco columnari usque ad _ tres 
pedes in diametro, cortice crasso, molli, extus atrobadio 
‘Chief, Section of Biology, Instituto Agronémico do Norte, Belém 
do Para, Brazil. 
 Botanist, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engi- 
neering, Agricultural Research Administration, U.S. Department of 
Agriculture; Research Fellow, Botanical Museum, Harvard Univer- 
sity; Collaborator, Instituto Agronémico do Norte. 
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