Myristica flosculosa
Content
Description
Tree 15-20 m.
Leaves chartaceous or coriaceous, elliptic-oblong to oblanceolate, base attenuate or nearly rounded, apex acute-acuminate, 8-23 by 3-8 cm;
Inflorescences between the leaves or below, of the Knema-typc, in male: a (sub)sessile, simple, scar-covered bra-chyblast to 5 by 3 mm, glabrescent, with (l-)2-7 flowers, buds of various sizes;
Fruits 1 or 2 (or 3) per infructescence, fusiform or ob-ovoid-oblong, (4-)4.5 by (1-)1.3 cm, apex subacute or narrowly rounded, base narrowed into a 10 mm long pseudostalk, hairs dense, scale-like, less than 0.1 mm;
Distribution
Asia-Tropical, Milne Bay Prov present, Northern Prov present, eastern Papua New Guinea present
Malesia: eastern Papua New Guinea (Northern Prov. and Milne Bay Prov.; known only from a few specimens).
Taxonomy
1 Both Sinclair and Foreman (I.e.) included some fruiting specimens from montane altitudes in M. flosculosa, specimens which are transferred here to different taxa. However, the fruiting collection Giulianetti s.n. (1896; comm. W. MacGregor) in K belongs to the present species. In M. flosculosa the fruits have characteristically a long pseudostalk and a long and slender fruiting pedicel, suggesting a close relationship to species like M. filipes, M. gracilipes, M. nana, and M. pumila, all species with similar slender pedicels.
3 Myristica flosculosa is a characteristic species with conspicuously tubiform male flowers. Vegetatively the ashy green undersurface of the leaves is remarkable. At anthesis the outwards curved perianth lobes expose the acute, almost acuminate apical part of the synandrium.
2 The basal inner surface of the perianth, facing the androphore, is conspicuously swollen and has an irregularly warted surface. In boiled-up herbarium specimens it has a dark, reddish brown colour, but it is possibly differently coloured when fresh.