Streblus

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Streblus

Description

Trees or shrubs, dioecious or monoecious, unarmed or armed with thorns, uncinate hairs often present. Leaves distichous or sometimes spirally arranged; stipules free or sometimes fused, lateral or sometimes almost fully amplexicaul. Inflorescences unisexual or sometimes bisexual, racemose, spicate or subcapitate, bracteate; stamens 3, 4, or 5, inflexed in the bud. ovary free, stigmas 2, equal. fruit free, drupaceous, dehiscent and whitish or indehiscent and yellow, orange, red, or blackish, endocarp (thinly) crustaceous; seed without endosperm, cotyledons folded or not, equal or unequal, radicle short or long.

Distribution

tropics of the Old World present
The genus comprises 23 species in the tropics of the Old World.

Ecology

Several species of sect. Streblus are associated with relatively dry and/or seasonal conditions, whereas some species of sect. Paratrophis are associated with southern warm-temperate conditions, or (S. glaber) partly with montane conditions.

Morphology

In several features including inflorescences, leaves, ecological differentiation, and number of species Streblus shows clear similarities to the neotropical genus Sorocea A. St.-Hil. In several species of sect. Streblus thorns are formed. In some species the drupes are dehiscent.

Taxonomy

By reduction of many former genera to sections, Corner (1962) has widened the circumscription of the genus considerably. Corner (1962, 1970) recognised eight sections in the genus. A more simplified subdivision has been proposed by Berg (1988), who excluded sect. Bleekrodea, because of the structure of the inflorescences and the utriculate perianth of the pistillate flower, and included three African-Madagascan species. The sections recognised are: section Ampalis (comprising two Madagascan species), section Paratrophis (comprising eight Australasian-Asian species), the monotypic sections Protostreblus and Sloetia, and the Asian-African section Streblus (comprising eight Asian and one African species). Section Streblus, in this narrow sense, differs from the other sections in the enlarged fruiting perianths, and includes four non-aculeate species with mostly subcoriaceous laminas and dentate margins. Section Taxotrophis comprises six aculeate species and section Pseudostreblus (Bureau) Corner the non-aculeate species with coriaceous laminas and entire margins (the latter contains only S. indicus (Bureau) Corner (1962), ranging from Myanmar to northern Thailand, South China (incl. Hainan) and Cambodia (see Berg 2005)).

Citation

Lour. 1970 – In: Blumea: 393
D. Dietr. 1852: p. 280. – In: Syn. Pl.: ‘Albradia’.
C.C. Berg 1977 – In: Bull. Jard. Bot. Belg.: 339
Gagnep. 1928 – In: Fl. Indo-Chine: 710
Benth. & Hook.f. 1880 – In: Gen. Pl.: 359
Bureau 1873 – In: A.DC., Prodr. 17: 218
Kochummen 1978 – In: Tree Fl. Malaya: 167
Engl. 1888 – In: Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 3: 78
Cheeseman 1906: Man. New Zealand Fl.: 631
C.C. Berg 2005 – In: Blumea: 547
Corner 1962 – In: Gard. Bull. Singapore 19: 215
Stearn 1947 – In: J. Arnold Arbor. 28: 426
Go 2000 – In: Tree Fl. Sabah & Sarawak: 329
Poir. 1827: p. 91. – In: Dict. Sci. Nat.: ‘Achimus’.
Corner 1962 – In: Gard. Bull. Singapore 19: 214
Boerl. 1900 – In: Handl. Fl. Ned. Ind.: 314
Hutch. 1918: Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew: 147
C.C. Berg 1988 – In: Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetensch.: 356
Hook.f. 1888 – In: Fl. Brit. India: 487
Lour. 1975: p. 6. – In: Phytomorphology: t. 3C.
C.C. Berg 1977 – In: Bull. Jard. Bot. Belg.: 343
Corner 1962 – In: Gard. Bull. Singapore 19: 214
Skottsb. 1944 – In: Acta Horti Gothob.: 347
Lour. 1975 – In: Phytomorphology: 1
Merr. 1935: Comm. Fl. Cochinch.: 134
Baill. 1875 – In: Hist. Pl.: 195