From The Rare Fruit Club WA
by Barry Madsen
Achachairu in Australia
Achahairu is a plant native to tropical south and central America that is included in the genus Garcinia
in the Clusiaceae family. Historically the taxonomy of this genus has
been a difficult and inadequately studied problem as it includes many
species with overlapping and often insufficiently different
morphological features that would allow clear species delineation using
classical techniques. The problem has been compounded more recently
with inclusion of a number of other genera, but it’s hoped that use of
modern molecular techniques will help resolve the area. The USDA
currently lists 72 species in the genus globally, but most of these are
from outside the neotropics and some are synonyms. It's also likely
among the smaller number of currently-listed neotropical species that
many of these are actually edpaho-climatic variants of individual
species and don’t warrant individual status. For example, a recent
molecular genetic study in Colombia concluded there were only six
native species in that country that were justified as separate and
distinct.
An early name for achachairu was Rheedia laterifolia, but there is now fairly general agreement that Rheedia species should be renamed and moved into Garcinia. The USDA lists G. humilis as a synonym for R. lateriflora, and G. gardneriana as a synonym for R. laterifolia.
The Missouri Botanic Gardens have suggested (2017) that fruit available
in Australia originally sourced from Bolivia and called 'achacha' is
probably G. gardneriana
(achacha was the common name chosen here for marketing reasons instead
of the the American name achachairu). They also suggest that G. brasiliensis is a synonym for G. gardneriana.
I was unable to find (as of Mar 2019) any molecular study published in
the last 10 years that could help resolve this confusion, so we’re left
with a number of names that are synonyms for achachairu.
The
convention in taxonomy is that the most recent and properly approved
name should be used with earlier ones being superseded, but in the real
world, habits can die slowly and we often see older names still being
used. While common names can be confusing and misleading, especially
across languages and countries, nailing down binomials is important
because we need to know when sourcing information whether it's
applicable to the plants we have - will they grow into big trees, need
cross-pollination, can we cross-graft etc. Obviously the sooner we have
a thorough genetic study the better we'll all be. In the meantime
however we can speculate that the Australian sourced plants are G gardneriana and this is a synonym for R. laterifolia, so the south American species and what we have here may be identical ie G. gardneriana.
There is a taxonomic key for this species, so when we get it to flower
and fruit for us we may be able to firm up the hypothesis.
Back to
Achachairu Page
|
|