Myristica iners
Content
Description
Tree 5-40 m.
Leaves membranous or chartaceous, rarely (at c. 1000 m) sub-coriaceous, elliptic-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 7-24 by 1.5—8(—10) cm, base rounded or attenuate, apex acute-acuminate;
Inflorescences between the leaves or below, paniculate, pedunculate, glabrescent;
Fruits usually single, ellipsoid or ovoid-ellipsoid, 3.5-6(-8) by 2.5-3.5(-4.5) cm, glabrescent, hairs dense, mealy, grey-brown, 0.2 mm;
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; Cambodia (Cambodia present); Jawa (Jawa present); Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Philippines (Philippines present); Sumatera (Sumatera present); Thailand (Thailand present)
Cambodia, Thailand; Malesia: Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Java, Borneo, possibly Philippines (see note 4).
Taxonomy
1 Myristica iners is variable especially in the shape and texture of leaves, the flower size, and the fruits. Leaves may be thinly chartaceous or subcoriaceous, especially in Java, with relatively distinct venation on the upper surface. Also in Java the inflorescences are generally compact and with a short peduncle, occasionally subsessile. In Borneo slender elongate and delicate (from sandy soils?) as well as stout, much-branched inflorescences exist, e.g. in Hose 392 (Sarawak), SAN 19541 (Sabah), or Kostermans 6789 (E Kalimantan), sometimes with ± woolly hairs 0.3-0.5 mm long (e.g. SAN 21323). Delicate specimens link up with the much related M. fallax from Borneo. Some specimens from Sumatra (Palembang) are distinguishable by exceedingly long peduncles of the male inflorescences, c. 40 mm, and these also link up with the related M. fallax.
3 Superficially resembling species are M. malaccensis, M. umbellata, and M. wyatt-smithii; taxonomically related are M. corticata, M. fallax, and M. umbellata.
2 Fruits are variable in size; smallest in Java (c. 4 cm long), largest in Peninsular Malaysia (7-8 cm long). Specimens from Java and the islands west of Sumatra generally have short fruiting pedicels (1-3 mm long), in most specimens from Borneo the fruiting pedicels are long and slender, to 15 mm long.
4 Wenzel 3537 (K, immature fr.), from the Philippines (Mindanao: Surigao), with a comparatively long and slender fruiting pedicel, and long hairs on the leaf bud, agrees with specimens from NE Borneo, but its locality is remarkable, far from the main distributional area of the species.
Citation
Lecomte 1914 – In: FI. Gén. Indo-Chine: 98
Backer & Bakh. f. 1964 – In: Fl. Java: 139
Blume 1837: p. 184. – In: Rumphia: t. 58
J. Sinclair 1968: p. 363. – In: Gard. Bull. Sing.: 177
W.J. de Wilde 1997 – In: Blumea: 168
J. Sinclair 1958: p. 363. – In: Gard. Bull. Sing.: f. 30
Blume 2000 – In: Tree Fl. Sabah & Sarawak: 464