Pullea
Content
Description
Small to moderately large trees, up to 30 m.
Leaves opposite and decussate or less commonly whorled, simple, entire or shallowly crenate, petiolate;
Stipules ovate or oblong, entire, early caducous.
Inflorescences usually axillary, frequently composed of 2 or 3 subunits arranged in series in opposite axils of leaves with upper one largest, and rarely terminal, each subunit paniculate with peduncle c. 1/4-1/2 of length of inflorescence, the major branches serially arranged, the flowers in dense terminal clusters of up to c. 16, or in lax, subspherical clusters with some scattered subdistal flowers (racemes), with small caducous bracts at nodes and subtending the flowers.
Flowers bisexual, (4-)5(-6)-merous (except for gynoecium), apetalous, appearing slightly protandrous.
Stamens with filaments thin, subulate and anthers broadly reniform, with a shortly extended connective at the apex and deeply incised at the base.
Ovary semi-inferior, hirsute, 2- or rarely 3-carpellate, the cells in superior part loosely connate, each cell with usually 4 (6 in Australian species) ovules in 2 rows;
Fruit inde-hiscent, the pericarp not adhering to the seeds, not or scarcely larger than the ovary in flower, the calyx lobes persistent, slightly enlarged, chartaceous, erect or somewhat spreading, the styles persistent, elongated, stiff, exserted;
Seeds minute, glabrous, flattened, perhaps slightly winged.
Distribution
E Malesia present, NE Australia present, Pacific: Fiji (Fiji present), Solomon Islands present
3 or 4 species in E Malesia, NE Australia, and Fiji. The reported occurrence from the Solomon Islands () is based on a wrongly identified specimen of Spiraeanthemum.
Ecology
and , sometimes descending into the lowlands, occurring from 300 to 2400 m altitude in Malesia and from sea level upwards in NE Australia.
Notes
1 Pullea was originally described as unique in the family because of its inferior ovary, subsequently more correctly indicated as semi-inferior by Engler (1928). However, the ovary in Ceratopetalum is also semi-inferior and there is a tendency in this direction also in Schizomeria where the ovary is sunk into the receptacle to a varying degree. Pullea differs from these genera by the imbricate aestivation of the calyx lobes, which is clearly visible in bud and still recognisable in flower and even in fruit.
3. The fruit is perhaps a carcerulus (‘indehiscent capsule’). It might also be described as a pseudosamara, but the calyx lobes are only slightly enlarged.
2. The flowers appear to be slightly protandrous, at least in P. glabra and P. stutzeri (F. Muell.) Gibbs, the styles remaining relatively short and incurved when the anthers dehisce, but they are not markedly diclinous.