Archidendron brachycarpum
Content
Description
Small myrmecophilous tree to 5 m high.
Branchlets terete, lenticellate, hollow, short-puberulous, probably glabrescent.
Leaves:
Stipules absent;
Inflorescences ?dioeceous, cauliflor- ous or supra-axillary in the younger branches, densely pubescent by patent hairs, consisting of unbranched or once-branched racemes, 2-5(-8) cm, with the flowers in the distal parts;
Flowers pentamerous, probably bisexual, white.
Stamens at least 25 mm, tube equalling the corolla-tube.
Ovaries 3, glabrous, surrounded by a tubular nectary.
Seeds unknown.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: New Guinea present, Gogol Dist present, New Britain present, New Ireland present, Ransiki present, W Irian present
Malesia: New Guinea (Gogol Dist.; W Irian: Ransiki), New Ireland, ?New Britain.
Notes
Originally based on a specimen from Lamekot, New Ireland. The neotype is from the mouth of the Bumi R., Gogol District. Fruiting specimens with sausage-shaped, wrinkled pods up to f 1 by 3 cm and black seeds, 17 by 12 by 7 mm, immersed in the orange fleshy valves of the pods probably belong here. These fruiting specimens were described as 'sp. L' by Verdcourt (I.c.: 260): NGF 22456 (New Britain), BW 2294 (Ransiki, W Irian), but flowering material from the same area is needed to decide whether 'sp. L' is conspecific with A. brachycarpum (cf. Nielsen, l.c.).