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