Myristica alba
Content
Description
Tree 4-20 m.
Leaves membranous or subcoriaceous, elliptic-oblong, 14-22 by 6-8.5 cm, base shortly attenuate or rounded, apex acute-acuminate, the very tip sometimes ± blunt;
Inflorescences between the leaves, of the Knema-type, sessile, brachyblasts to 5 mm, slender, with brown hairs 0.3 mm;
Fruits solitary, subsessile, variable in shape (see note 2), ellipsoid-oblong or subglobose (when slightly immature), 3-4.2 by 2.5 cm, apex sometimes shortly beaked, at base contracted into a thick, 3-5 mm long pseudostalk;
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Maluku (Maluku present), Bacan present, Bum present, Obi present
Malesia: Moluccas (Bacan, Obi, Bum).
Taxonomy
1 Resembles M. pubicarpa from the same area, M. nivea from the Philippines, and M. impressa and M. impressinervia from Sulawesi, all having whitish leaves below, later on becoming finely dark-punctate by hair scars (lens!). Myristica alba differs from these species in its small, nearly sessile, elongate male flowers. Both fruiting collections of M. alba have the fruits conspicuously contracted at the base into a short pseudostalk.
2 The specimen bb 23157 has ellipsoid fruits with dense curly woolly hairs 0.5(-l) mm. Nooteboom 5369 (Bum) has almost globose fruits, 2.5 cm diameter, with a 3-5 mm long pseudostalk; the scurfy hairs are very short, 0.1 mm. More collections are needed to judge the taxonomic significance of these differences.