Dimocarpus

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Dimocarpus

Description

Trees or shrubs, mostly monoecious. Leaves spirally arranged, paripinnate, rarely unifoliolate, 1-7-jugate, hairy, often glabrescent; Inflorescences terminal and sometimes in the upper leaf-axils. Flowers unisexual, actin-omorphic. Sepals 5 (or 6), confluent at base, imbricate, equal, not petaloid, outside densely tomentose, inside short-hairy at least in the upper part, not ciliate, entire. Petals 0-5 (or 6), mostly longer than sepals, ± oblanceolate, no scale. Stamens (6-)8(-10), either equal (mostly) or more or less distinctly alternately long and short, exserted or not; Ovules 1 per cell, attached axillary near the base. Fruits: Seeds ± globular;

Distribution

Asia-Tropical: India present; Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka present), Australasia, Eastern Malesia present, S and SE Asia present
Six species in S and SE Asia from Sri Lanka and India to eastern Malesia and Australia.

Uses

The fruits, especially of D. longan subsp. longan, are esteemed by the Chinese and others, and that subspecies is often planted, especially outside the area in which true Rambutans can grow. The wood of some species seems to be of good quality, but it is used only locally; it may be that sizeable stems are often hollow.

Notes

1. Dimocarpus seems to be most closely related to Otonephelium, a mono-typic genus from southern India that differs mainly by the presence of pseudo-stipules and the glabrous disk.
2. Though typical Euphoria (Dimocarpus longan var. malesianus) and typical Pseu-donephelium (Dimocarpus fumatus) seem very different, the difference in several characters (hairs tufted or not, leaves entire or incised, absence or presence of naked glands on the lower side of the leaflets near or at the margin, calyx lobed nearly to the base or slightly less deeply, petals present or absent, densely hairy or nearly glabrous) is bridged by other species. Dimocarpus foveolatus, particularly noteworthy in this respect, is veg-etatively a Pseudonephelium but has typical Euphoria flowers. Moreover, several characters show intermediate states, while the others are not obviously mutually correlated.

Citation

Leenh. 1971: pp. 113-131. – In: Blumea
Radlk. 1888 – In: Durand, Ind. Gen.: 76
Radlk. 1932: pp. 912-914. – In: Engl., Pflanzenr. 98
Radlk. 1890 – In: Sitzungsber. Math.-Phys. CI. Konigl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. Munchen: 288