Trema orientalis
Content
Description
Shrub to large tree, 3-36 m, 10-90 cm ø.
Bark smooth to finely fissured, lenticellate, grey-brown or whitish-grey.
Branchlets, stipules, petioles, and inflorescences densely set with appressed and matted or erect silvery to glaucous 1-celled hairs and short multicellular glandular hairs.
Leaves thin- to thick-coriaceous, often rigid and brittle, ovate, ovate-lanceolate to narrow elliptic, lanceolate, (6-)10-15(-18) by (l½-)2½-6(-10)cm, index (2-)3-4(-5 ½) broadest at or mostly below the middle, mostly discolorous, above dull grey-brown or grey-green in dried specimens, scabrate and sparsely set with bulbous-based hairs, beneath densely tomentose by a combination of silvery, glaucous or grey-brown, appressed 1-celled hairs and shorter multicellular glandular hairs ();
Stipules linear-lanceolate to ovate-acute, 3-4 by 1-2 mm.
Inflorescences either ♂ or ♀ borne on separate vegetative branches, a much-branched panicle or thyrse, at anthesis lax or condensed, axes 1-2 mm thick;
Flowers 5-merous.
Distribution
Asia-Temperate: Hainan (Hainan present), Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; India present; Jawa (Jawa present); Lesser Sunda Is. present; Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present; Philippines (Philippines present); Sulawesi (Sulawesi present); Sumatera (Sumatera present); Thailand (Thailand present), Australasia: Queensland (Queensland present), Bombay present, Burma present, Ceylon present, Malabar present, Melanesia present, Micronesia present, New Britain present, Pacific: Fiji (Fiji present); Marianas present; Tonga (Tonga present), Polynesia present, S. Japan present, SE. Asia present, Solomons present, Southern America: Argentina Northeast (Formosa present), Tahiti present, Tropical Africa present, W. Himalayas present
Tropical Africa, SE. Asia (Ceylon, India: from W. Himalayas to Bombay and Malabar; Burma, Thailand, Indo-China, China, also Hainan, Formosa, to S. Japan), through Malesia to Queensland, Melanesia (Solomons), Micronesia (Marianas), and Polynesia (Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti). In Malesia: Malay Peninsula and Sumatra (rather rare), Java (rather common in the hills and submontane regions), Lesser Sunda Islands (rare), Borneo (common), Philippines (rather common), Celebes (rather rare), Moluccas (rare), and New Guinea (incl. New Britain, rare).
Taxonomy
Three rather but not completely distinct entities may be recognized. These are:
Several intermediates are present however, making formal infraspecific distinction not advisable.
- Specimens from continental Asia and W. Malesia which have been variously identified as T. orientalis, rigida, argentea, and wightii by previous authors. They are characterized by: thick-coriaceous, broadly ovate to ovate-elliptic leaves with grey-brown to glaucous indumentum, slightly asymmetrical to symmetrical cordate, subcordate or rounded base, rugose upper surface, and acute to acuminate apex; and by a relatively larger fruit of c. 4-5 by 3-4 mm and stouter inflorescence axes.
- Specimens from S. Japan, Formosa, Hainan, the Philippines, New Guinea, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, and Australia, which have been included in the so-called T. discolor, characterized by: thin-coriaceous, narrow-ovate leaves with strongly asymmetrical cordate base, hardly scabrate upper surface, short and matted silvery to grey-brown indumentum, lax inflorescence with slender axes, and fruits c. 3-4 by 2-3 mm.
- A few specimens from scattered localities in S. China, Thailand, Sumatra, and Borneo, which have been described by DE WIT (1949) as T. orientalis subsp. bicornis, characterized by: very narrow, ovate-lanceolate thin-coriaceous leaves with silvery appressed and matted dense indumentum on the lower surface and non-scabrate upper surface, 6-8 pairs of nerves, and the shorter and few-flowered inflorescence.
Several intermediates are present however, making formal infraspecific distinction not advisable.
Citation
LAUT. 1913 – In: Bot. Jahrb.: 320
BACK. & BAKH.F. 1965 – In: Fl. Java: 12
PLANCH. 1873 – In: DC., Prod. 17: 201
WIGHT 1853 – In: IC.: t. 1971
DECNE 1873 – In: DC., Prod. 17: 200
PLANCH. 1848 – In: Ann. Sc. Nat.: 323
PLANCH. 1848 – In: Ann. Sc. Nat.: 336
Miq. 1859 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 217
SOEPADMO 1973 – In: Whitmore, Tree Fl.Mal. 2: 421
PLANCH. 1848 – In: Ann. Sc. Nat.: 324
Hook.f. 1888 – In: Fl. Br. Ind.: 484
LAUT. 1913 – In: Bot. Jahrb.: 319
DECNE 1873 – In: DC., Prod. 17: 201
DE WIT 1949 – In: Bull. Bot. Gard. Btzg: 189
Corner 1940: Ways. Trees: 694: pl. 211
Roxb. 1832 – In: Fl. Ind., ed. Carey: 65
J. J. SMITH 1910 – In: K. & V., Bijdr. 12: 655
PLANCH 1873 – In: DC., Prod. 17: 202
BTH. 1873 – In: Fl. Austr.: 158