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  "last_modified": "2025-12-15",
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    "wfo": "wfo-0000332885",
    "inat_taxon_id": 444757
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    "scientific": "Vitellaria paradoxa",
    "authorship": "C.F.Gaertn.",
    "genus": "Vitellaria",
    "epithet": "paradoxa",
    "family": "Sapotaceae",
    "rank": "species",
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    "published_in": "Suppl. Carp. : 131 (1807)",
    "protologue_url": "https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:790034-1",
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      "preferred": "Shea Butter Tree",
      "english": [
        "Shea Butter Tree",
        "shea butter",
        "shea tree"
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      "source": "wikidata"
    },
    "synonyms": [
      {
        "name": "Bassia parkii",
        "authorship": "G.Don"
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum mangifolium",
        "authorship": "(Pierre ex A.Chev.) A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum niloticum",
        "authorship": "Kotschy"
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum paradoxum",
        "authorship": "(C.F.Gaertn.) Hepper"
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum paradoxum subsp. niloticum",
        "authorship": "(Kotschy) Hepper"
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum paradoxum subsp. parkii",
        "authorship": "(G.Don) Hepper"
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii",
        "authorship": "(G.Don) Kotschy"
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii subsp. niloticum",
        "authorship": "(Kotschy) Hepper"
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii var. cuneatum",
        "authorship": "A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii var. ferrugineum",
        "authorship": "A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii var. floccosum",
        "authorship": "A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii var. mangifolium",
        "authorship": "Pierre ex A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii var. niloticum",
        "authorship": "(Kotschy) A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii var. parvifolium",
        "authorship": "A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii var. poissonii",
        "authorship": "A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum parkii var. serotinum",
        "authorship": "A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Butyrospermum poissonii",
        "authorship": "(A.Chev.) A.Chev."
      },
      {
        "name": "Lucuma paradoxa",
        "authorship": "(C.F.Gaertn.) A.DC."
      },
      {
        "name": "Mimusops capitata",
        "authorship": "Baker"
      },
      {
        "name": "Mimusops pachyclada",
        "authorship": "Baker"
      }
    ],
    "wikipedia": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitellaria"
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    "license": "CC BY 3.0",
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        "continent": "AFRICA",
        "region": "West Tropical Africa"
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        "name": "Mauritania",
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      },
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        "name": "Uganda",
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    "sufficient": true,
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    "peak_basis": "share",
    "min_month_n": 5,
    "fruiting": {
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    "lifeform": "tree",
    "climate": "seasonally dry tropical"
  },
  "identification": {
    "on_device_model": {
      "model": "Google AIY plants V1 (TFLite, 2,102 classes)",
      "identifies_this_species": false
    },
    "in_accuracy_benchmark": false,
    "benchmark_url": "https://botanai.app/accuracy/",
    "confused_with": []
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "name": "World Flora Online Plant List",
      "note": "accepted name, authority, classification",
      "license": "CC0",
      "url": "https://www.worldfloraonline.org/",
      "retrieved": "2026-07-12"
    },
    {
      "name": "iNaturalist",
      "note": "photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only",
      "license": "per photograph",
      "url": "https://www.inaturalist.org/",
      "retrieved": "2026-06-27"
    },
    {
      "name": "Wikidata",
      "note": "common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715)",
      "license": "CC0",
      "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/",
      "retrieved": "2026-07-13"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16)",
      "note": "native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form",
      "license": "CC BY 3.0",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.15468/6h8ucr",
      "retrieved": "2026-06-04"
    }
  ],
  "gaps": [
    {
      "field": "care",
      "status": "not_published",
      "reason": "Not published anywhere on this site. Every care claim we could make cheaply would be an unsourced enum, which is what the previous version of this site did and why it was deleted."
    },
    {
      "field": "toxicity",
      "status": "not_published",
      "reason": "Not published. The widely copied list is a copyrighted compilation restricted to noncommercial use, and we will not scrape it. A sourced toxicity dataset is being built from primary literature and is not ready."
    },
    {
      "field": "botanical_review",
      "status": "not_sourced",
      "reason": "No page on this site has been reviewed by a named botanist. The determination label says so, on every page."
    }
  ],
  "license": {
    "data": "CC BY 4.0",
    "attribution": "BotanAI, https://botanai.app/plants/vitellaria-paradoxa/",
    "note": "This document is licensed CC BY 4.0. The PHOTOGRAPHS it links are licensed individually and separately: each carries its own license and license_url, and those terms govern. Underlying taxonomy is CC0 (World Flora Online); native range is CC BY 3.0 (Kew)."
  }
}