Maclura

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Maclura

Description

Climbers, trees or shrubs, dioecious, armed with straight to curved, reduced branchlets ending in a spinose tip (sometimes only in juvenile specimens). Leaves distichous or spirally arranged; stipules free or fused, lateral to semi-amplexicaul, often very small. Inflorescences usually solitary, in the leaf axils or on short-shoots, often yellow (dye-containing) glands embedded in the bracts and/or the (fruiting) perianths. flowers free or connate; stamens straight or inflexed in the bud. ovary free or the lower part adnate to the perianth, stigmas 2, mostly strongly unequal in length, or 1. fruit free or adnate to the perianth, when free slightly drupaceous, endocarp crustaceous; seed small to rather large, endosperm present (but scarce) or absent, embryo various, mostly with (rather) thin, folded or flat, cotyledons and a long radicle.

Distribution

Africa present, Asia present, North America present, neotropics present
The genus comprises eleven species of which ten occur in the tropics (seven in Asia, one in Africa, and two in the Neotropics) and one in North America.

Dispersal

The orange-coloured pulpy infructescences are dispersed by birds (Ridley, Dispersal of plants throughout the world, 1930).

Taxonomy

The genus can be subdivided into five sections (Berg 1986): Cardiogyne (one species in Africa and another in the Neotropics), Chlorophora (one species in the Neotropics), Cudrania (four species in Asia), Maclura (a single species in North America), and Plecospermum (two species in Asia). The species of sect. Cudrania do not have the urticaceous type of stamen and are exceptional in the tribe Moreae.

The species occurring in the Malesian region represent sect. Cudrania ser. Connatae Corner (). It differs from the three other species of this section in the basally connate pistillate flowers with one stigma or two unequally long ones.

Citation

Blume 1856 – In: Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugduno-Batavi. p 81
Baill. 1875 – In: Hist. Pl. p 202
Corner 1962 – In: Gard. Bull. Singapore 19. p 241
Trécul 1869 – In: Bureau, Ann. Sci. Nat. p 377
Renner 1907 – In: Bot. Jahrb. Syst. p 361
C.C. Berg 1977 – In: Bull. Jard. Bot. Belg. p 359
Boerl. 1900: p. 329. – In: Handl. Fl. Ned. Ind. (‘Cudravia’)
Bureau 1873 – In: A.DC., Prodr. 17. p 226
Nutt. 2001 – In: Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. p 53
Engl. 1888 – In: Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 3. p 74
Raf. 1818: p. 188. – In: Amer. Monthly Mag. & Crit. Rev. (‘Toxylon’),
Corner 1962 – In: Gard. Bull. Singapore 19. p 235
Hook.f. 1888 – In: Fl. Brit. India. p 538
Bureau 1873 – In: A.DC., Prodr. 17. p 285
Engl. 1888 – In: Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 3. p 82
Baill. 1875 – In: Hist. Pl. p 193
C.C. Berg 1986 – In: Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetensch. p 243
Benth. & Hook.f. 1880 – In: Gen. Pl. p 363
Benth. & Hook.f. 1880 – In: Gen. Pl. p 374
Lemée 1932 – In: Dict. Gen. Pl. Phan. p 230