benkendu

Description FRUIT. Elliptical, red when mature. Epicarp densely puberulent with yellow short simple hairs with granular ornamentation and longer simple hairs without ornamentation, shriveled when dry, revealing the underlying reticulum of endocarp ridges. Mesocarp 240 – 300 µm thick when dry. Length 11.0 – 13.6 mm, width 7.0 – 11.0 mm, thickness 4 – 7.1 mm. ENDOCARP. Cream, elliptical in lateral view, lenticular in transverse section, length ca 12.1 mm, width ca 7.6 mm, thickness ca 6.3 mm. Keel surrounding the endocarp in the plane of symmetry, with the thicker margin containing the primary vascular bundle embedded within the endocarp wall. Apex slightly asymmetrical in lateral view, horn-like protrusions or pores absent; base rounded and symmetrical. Outer surface of the endocarp ridged, with 4 – 5 main longitudinal ridges; the median ridges running from the point of the base up to the point of the apex. Ridges rounded, thin, with a median channel, delimiting a reticulate pattern (sparse subapically and subbasally, but denser toward the middle), enclosing 13 – 15 polygonal areoles each with a freely ending ridge. Vasculature of the endocarp resting in the channels of the ridges. Endocarp wall 128 – 173 µm thick excluding ridges (300 – 360 µm thick including ridges). Endocarp wall with at least two cell layers: outermost layer with 5 – 9 rows of isodiametric to anticlinally oriented cells, cells 22.7 – 29.0 µm in width, innermost layer with 1 – 5 rows of periclinally oriented cells, cells 13 – 14 µm in width. Locule surface unknown, lacunate.