Notícias
Jabuticaba caipirinha, an old and new acquaintance
A researcher from the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden and collaborators have discovered that the jaboticaba native to the north of Minas Gerais is a new species for science. This is Guapurium caipirinha, described in an article published in the journal Phytotaxa on June 7, 2024.
Due to its very sweet fruit, this jaboticaba is well known by the inhabitants of the municipalities of the Rio Doce Valley (MG), such as Belo Oriente, Ipatinga and Santana do Paraíso, who keep the plant in their backyards and in the countryside, even in deforested areas. It is also used by rare fruit growers and, due to the small size of its leaves, by practitioners of the art of Bonsai. The hypothesis that this was an undescribed species was raised by Harri Lorenzi (Plantarum Botanical Garden) and collaborators in 2015, but has only now been confirmed.
Researcher João Marcelo Alvarenga Braga (JBRJ), first author of the article, explains that the name "caipirinha" has nothing to do with the famous Brazilian drink: "Caipirinha was already the name given to the plant by the local inhabitants, because it was small and genuinely 'caipira', native to the region." It differs from the jabuticabas commonly sold mainly because its flower is divided into five petals, because of the sweetness of the fruit and because of its small size.