Nephelium meduseum
Content
Description
Tree, up to 27 m high, dbh up to 50 cm, with up to 1.20 m high buttresses.
Leaves 2-5-jugate;
Flowers only known from old ones and the remains under the fruit.
Sepals hardly connate.
Petals at least 3, 1.6 mm long, claw slender, 1 mm long, blade ovate, 0.7 mm wide, the margin in the basal half of the blade incurved, sparsely woolly but for the apex and the inside of the blade.
Ovary 2-celled.
Fruits ellipsoid to subglobular, 3.25-4 by 2.5-3 c m, densely fulvous puberulous, densely set with filiform, curled appendages, c. 15 mm long, swollen at the base;
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present (Brunei present, Sarawak present), W Kalimantan present
Malesia: Borneo (Sarawak, Brunei, and W Kalimantan).
Notes
1. The number of stamens is unknown, but in view of the relatively primitive flower it seems reasonable to suppose that this will be about 7 or 8.
2. In- contrast to all other species of Nephelium studied by me the embryo does not fill the seed completely; the sclerotesta is relatively thick, very hard, and fibrous inside, an inner layer apparently splits off and surrounds the embryo. Whether this is natural or is caused by how the soft inner layer dries is not clear.
3. This species seems closest to N. costatum and N. melliferum; see under the former species.
4. The leaves strongly resemble those of N. daedaleum and N. hamulatum, which, however, differ by the dense indumentum on the lower side of their leaflets.
2. In- contrast to all other species of Nephelium studied by me the embryo does not fill the seed completely; the sclerotesta is relatively thick, very hard, and fibrous inside, an inner layer apparently splits off and surrounds the embryo. Whether this is natural or is caused by how the soft inner layer dries is not clear.
3. This species seems closest to N. costatum and N. melliferum; see under the former species.
4. The leaves strongly resemble those of N. daedaleum and N. hamulatum, which, however, differ by the dense indumentum on the lower side of their leaflets.