Adenanthera microsperma

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Adenanthera microsperma

Description

Tree to 30 m high, to 90 cm girth. Branchlets glabrous or puberulous, glabrescent. Leaves: Stipules not seen. Flowers yellowish white, turning dark yellow at anthesis. Petals 2.5-3.5 mm, oblong, acute, usually glabrous but occasionally puberulous towards the apex. Stamens 3-4.5 mm; Ovary 1.6-2.2 mm, densely sericeous (with a few appressed hairs); Seeds bright scarlet red, suborbicular to ellipsoid or broadly obovoid, 5.5-7(-8) by 4.5-7 by 4 mm, areole running c. 1 mm from the margin of the seed, open towards the hilum.

Distribution

Andaman Islands present, Asia-Tropical: Jawa (Jawa present); Lesser Sunda Is. present; Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Thailand (Thailand present), Burma present, S China present, Timor present
Burma, S China, Indo-China, Thailand, Andaman Islands; in Malesia: Malay Peninsula, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands (Timor), also cultivated.

Uses

Shade tree for coffee (Java); also as an ornamental.

Notes

Formerly included as a variety in A. pavonina (Nielsen 1980,1981,1985), but indumentum, leaf, flower and seed characters appear to be sufficiently different in A. microsperma for specific distinction (see the Key to the species (p. 166), and Nielsen 1992).

Citation

Nielsen 1992: p. 112. – In: Nordic J. Bot.: f. 16
Verdc. 1979: Manual New Guin. Legum.: 137
Backer & Bakh. f. 1963 – In: Fl. Java: 563
Nielsen 1985 – In: Fl. Thailand: 140
Nielsen 1981: p. 15. – In: Fl. Camb. Laos Vietnam: pl. 1: 13-18