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(Last Modified On 2/7/2013)
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(Last Modified On 2/7/2013)
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Species
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MYRISTICA FRAGRANS Houtt.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Handleid. Hist. Nat. Linn. 2: 333. 1774.
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Synonym
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Myristica officinalis L.f. Suppl. 262. 1781. Myristica moschata Thunb. in Vet. Akad. Handl. Stockh. 49. 1789. Myristica aromatica Lam. Act. Acad. Sci. Paris 1788: 155. 1791.
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Description
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Aromatic, dioecious, glabrate trees to 20 m. high, the older bark rather smooth and olivaceous, mottled with white, the younger branches often mottled with red. Leaves subcoriaceous, glabrous, lanceolate to ovate or obovate, apically acute to acuminate, basally acute, 6-12 cm. long, 3-6 cm. broad, with usually 6-11 pairs of secondary veins, the tertiary nerves obscure, not conspicuously perpendicular to the midrib, the petioles 5-15 mm. long, ca. 1 mm. broad. Staminate flowers 1 to few in dichotomous cymes; pedicels glabrous, 5-15 mm. long; bracts ca. 1 mm. long; perianth tardily 3-parted, 3-7 mm. long; anthers 12-30, 2-3 mm. long, dorsally co- herent to the column, the infra-antheral portion of the column 1-2 mm. long. Pistillate flowers solitary or rarely paired in the axils; pedicels glabrous, 5-15 mm. long; bracts ca. 1 mm. long; perianth accrescent, tardily 3-parted, the segments del- toid, the subsessile stigma obscurely 2-lobed. Fruit fleshy, ovoid to pyriform, the pericarp splitting longitudinally into 2 valves, 3-6 cm. long, 2.5-4.5 cm. broad; seed 1.5-4.5 cm. long, 1.0-2.5 cm. broad, the laciniate aril reddish.
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Habit
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trees
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Distribution
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Native to the Moluccas, widely cultivated in tropical America.
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Specimen
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BOCAS DEL TORO: vicinity of Chiriqui Lagoon, Von Wedel 1232.
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Note
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Many spices are extracted from this utilitarian tree, now largely cultivated in southeastern Asia and Grenada. Mace is derived from the aril, and nutmeg from the pulverized seed; a non-drying oil, the so-called nutmeg butter, is also ex- pressed from the seeds. Rumor has it that imperial bureaucrats of little botanic bent once ordered a speedup in the culture of nutmeg trees and a cutback in pro- duction for mace trees.
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