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(Last Modified On 9/19/2013)
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(Last Modified On 9/19/2013)
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Genus
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Meliosma Blume
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PlaceOfPublication
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Cat. 32. 1823.
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Note
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LECTOTYPE: M. lanceolata Bl.
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Synonym
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Millingtonia Roxb., P1. Corom. 3: 50. 1820, non L.f., 1781. TYPE: M. simplicifolia Roxb. = Meliosma simplicifolia (Roxb.) Walp. Wellingtonia Meisn., P1. Vasc. Gen. 2: 207. 1840. TYPE: Millingtonia simplicifolia Roxb. = Meliosma simplicifolia (Roxb.) Walp. Kingsboroughia Liebm., Vidensk. Meddel. Dansk Naturhist. Foren. Kj0benhavn 2: 67. 1850. TYPE: Kingsboroughia alba (Schlecht.) Liebm. = M. alba (Schlecht.) Walp. Lorenzanea Liebm., Vidensk. Meddel. Dansk Naturhist. Foren. Kjobenhavn 2: 69. 1850. LECTOTYPE: L. glabrata Liebm. = M. glabrata (Liebm.) Urb. Oligostemon Turcz., Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 31: 447. 1858. non Benth. 1865. TYPE: 0. schlimii Turcz. = M. schlimii (Turcz.) Tr. Heterapithmos Turcz., Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 32: 265. 1859. TYPE: H. floribunda Turcz. Atelandra Bello, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 289. 1881., non Lindl. 1839. TYPE: A. laurina Bello. = M. herbertii Rolfe.
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Description
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Trees and shrubs, usually evergreen. Leaves alternate (rarely subopposite) frequently clustered at the twig apices, simple (Panama) or pinnately compound, entire or frequently dentate, the petiole usually thickened at base. Inflorescence terminal to cauliflorous, frequently ramiflorous, paniculate, usually pyramidal, the bracts reduced, inconspicuous, the usually numerous flowers sessile or ped- icellate. Flowers small, zygomorphic; sepals 5 (in Panama, rarely reduced to 3 elsewhere); petals 5, the 3 outer ones larger and usually more or less suborbicular, the 2 inner ones much reduced, thin and strap-shaped, opposite the fertile stamens and more or less fused to the filament bases; fertile stamens 2, the filament short, flat, incurved at tip, the anthers bilocular, the thecae short and thick, transversely dehiscent, often separated by the thickened connective, the staminodes 3, op- posite and more or less fused with the bases of the larger petals, sometimes forming a cap over the pistil; ovary globose to conical, bilocular, rarely trilocular, with 2 more or less superimposed ovules in each locule, the style minute to elongate, the stigma minute; disc usually present, typically 5-toothed. Fruit a drupe, globose to obovoid, sometimes with a slight median keel, with a single large seed (rarely with 2 ovules developing per fruit according to Beusekom), the mesocarp thin, the endocarp frequently exceptionally hard: seed more or less globose, usually somewhat concave ventrally, without endosperm.
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Habit
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Trees and shrubs
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Note
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Meliosma is predominantly of Laurasian distribution with about 15 species in southeast Asia (only one crossing Wallace's line) and 40 in the neotropics. The neotropical species, ranging from Mexico and the West Indies to Brazil, are predominantly plants of wet middle elevation forests and are concentrated in Colombia (12 species, mostly in the Andes) and southern Central America (11 species in Costa Rica, 10 in Panama). All but one of the New World species belong to section Lorenzanea of subgenus Meliosma as defined by Beusekom; the section is exclusively neotropical, the subgenus being found also in Asia. A single New World species, M. alba of Mexico, belongs to the second subgenus of Meliosma, subg. Kingsboroughia, which has a disjunct relict subtropical Laur- asian distribution. Meliosma alba, which also occurs in south central China, is the only New World species of the genus with compound leaves. Meliosma has an unusually long and well-documented fossil record and was widespread both in North America and Eurasia during much of the Tertiary Period. One Panamanian Meliosma is not accounted for here. This plant is repre- sented by three fruiting collections (Hagen & Hagen s.n., 2112, 2118, all MO) from Cerro Horqueta, Chiriqui, between 6,000 and 6,500 ft. It is related to M. vernicosa and M. occidentalis, keying out with the latter on account of its mem- branaceous leaves. The fruits, somewhat smaller (1.5-1.9 cm diam.) than usual in M. occidentalis and differing also in a conspicuously asymmetric base, are very like those discussed above under M. vernicosa for similarly problematic, but coriaceous-leaved, extra-Panamanian collections. Besides differing from M. occidentalis in fruit form and from M. vernicosa in leaf texture, the Hagen col- lections are from a higher altitude than any known locality of either M. vernicosa or M. occidentalis and have leaf undersurfaces with contrastingly light-drying main veins unlike any specimen of either species. Pending additional collections, including flowering material, I prefer not to describe this probably new, but not very distinctive, species. Chromosome number: 2n = 32.
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Key
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a. Leaves very large, more than 30 cm long. b. Leaves densely and persistently pubescent over surface beneath, obovate ...... 11. M. schlimii bb. Leaves glabrous beneath or with a few trichomes along midveins, linear to oblanceolate. c. Leaves linear to linear oblanceolate, less than 8 cm wide, strongly bullate; inflorescence terminal ...... 9. M. linearifolia cc. Leaves oblanceolate, more than 10 cm wide, slightly or not at all bullate; inflorescence cauliflorous ... 4. M. donnellsmithii aa. Leaves small to medium large, less than 33 cm long. d. Leaf bases cordate ... 3. M. cordata dd. Leaf bases cuneate to obtuse or subrounded. e. Petiole less than 3.5 cm long; leaves with fewer than 15 pairs of secondary veins; stems not hollow. f. Fruits less than 1 cm diam., globose; inflorescence terminal or from upper- most leaf axils, the individual flowers pedicellate; outer petals ca. 1 mm long; above 1300 m alt. ...... 8. M. idiopoda ff. Fruits more than 1.5 cm long, obovoid to pyriform; inflorescence usually ramiflorous with subsessile flowers, if from axils of extant leaves then the outer petals 3-6 mm long; mostly sea level to middle elevations. g. Flowers mostly pedicellate, relatively large, the outer petals 3-6 mm long; inflorescence from upper leaf axils. h. Petals 5-6 mm long; twigs and petioles glabrous; leaves glabrous ...... 7. M . grandiflora hh. Petals 3-5 mm long; twigs and petioles villous; leaves hirsute at least on main veins ...... 2. M. brenesii gg. Flowers subsessile, the outer petals less than 3 mm long; inflorescence usually ramiflorous. i. Leaves glabrous, petiole glabrous or soon glabrescent. j. Leaves chartaceous, secondary veins plane above, base cuneate ...... 6. M. glabrata jj. Leaves thick coriaceous, secondary veins impressed above, base truncate ...... 5. M. frondosa ii. Leaves persistently puberulous at least along veins beneath and on petiole. k. Inflorescence very dense at anthesis; leaves coriaceous; middle elevations ...... 12. M. vernicosa kk. Inflorescence not dense, adjacent flowers usually separated by at least 1 mm; leaves chartaceous; low to middle elevations ...... 10. M. occidentalis ee. Petiole 4-9 cm long; leaves with mostly 13-22 pairs of secondary veins; stems hollow ...... 1. M. allenii
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