Myristica longipes
Content
Description
Tree 7-20 m.
Leaves ± membranous, elliptic-oblong, 9-17 by 4-6.5 cm, base narrowly rounded or cuneate, apex acute(-acuminate), upper surface dark brown, lower surface silvery-grey, early or late glabrescent, hairs sparse, scale-like, 0.1 mm or less;
Inflorescences pedunculate, between the leaves or just below, with two short branches, and one central flower (or this abortive), flowers in small subumbels, hairs sparse, shaggy, 0.1 mm;
Fruits single, 4.5-6 by 2-2.5 cm, fusiform, apex acute, beaked by style-remnant, base narrowed into a 5-7 mm long pseudo-stalk, hairs dense, mealy, dark-brown, 0.1 mm;
Distribution
Asia-Tropical, C Papua Barat present, Central Prov present, Papua New Guinea present, Sogeri & Kotaki region present
Malesia: Papua New Guinea (Central Prov., Sogeri & Kotaki region); possibly C Papua Barat (but see note 2); a locally endemic species.
Taxonomy
1 Myristica longipes was described after a single fruiting collection, later on lost in Berlin. When revising the Papuasian Myristicas Markgraf (1936) added a few collections, but Ledermann 9728, on which he described the male flowers, was (is) considered by Sinclair and me to belong to a different species. Myristica longipes, moreover, contains in Sinclair's (1968) and Foreman's (1978) treatments many specimens which at present are transferred to various other species. The present species is now restricted to five collections and Forbes 647 (with almost mature fruit) is herewith designated as neotype.
2 Brass & Versteegh 12574 (Central Papua Barat, 1300 m altitude), with dark orange fruits, keys out to M. longipes. It is possible that it is a species of its own. The specimen differs from M. longipes (Papua New Guinea) in shorter and less slender fruiting pedicel, 10 by 4-5 mm, with the bracteole scar 4 mm below the apex; the fruit is comparatively slightly broader, 4-4.5 by 2 cm, with short and broad pseudostalk, but is somewhat immature. The collecting locality is far apart from that of M. longipes, and at a higher altitude. More (preferably male flowering) material from Papua Barat should elucidate its status. The specimen is also close to M. laevifolia and M. vinkii, both (generally) with sessile inflorescences.