Polygala venenosa
Content
Description
Erect, sparingly dichotomously branched shrub or small tree, 0.7-5 m high.
Leaves elliptic to lanceolate, 7-33 by 4-13 cm, acuminate, base attenuate, thinly strigose to glabrous, glaucescent beneath, 0.5-3 cm petioled.
Flowers 13-20 mm long, upper petals white or magenta and turning violet, crest yellow and turning dark violet to brownish, on 6-15(-20) mm long pedicels.
Sepals white or yellowish, rounded, ciliate, alae obovate.
Ovary obreniform to orbicular;
Capsule obreniform to didymous, 5-8 by 7.5-12 mm, winged or unwinged, with more or less protruding concentric ribs, coriaceous, greenish purple to deep purple, glabrous.
Seeds elliptic, at micro-pylar side with a small appendage, purplish black, glabrous, to halfway or nearly completely covered by the smooth, orange to scarlet aril, the slightly protruding chalaza and the raphe distinctly visible.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; Jawa (Jawa present); Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Philippines (Philippines present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), Pattani present, Peninsular Thailand present
Malesia: Peninsular Thailand (Pattani), Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Philippines.
Taxonomy
VAN STEENIS (1972) distinguished two ecological races: subsp. pulchra, with rather small leaves, non-fleshy stems, and lax inflorescence with thin, flexuous axes, and subsp. venenosa with fleshy leaves and stems, dense inflorescence with thick, straight axes, the first occurring in submontane altitudes on stony, well-drained places in light forest on slopes and ridges, the latter in the depth of primary and secondary forest in deep moist humus, stream valleys and riparian. Also in Java intermediate forms occur. Outside Java the distinction between both types is less distinct or even obscure.
Citation
Merr. 1923 – In: En. Philip.: 385
Miq. 1858 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 126
BURK. 1923 – In: Gard. Bull. S. S.: 34
BACKER 1911: Schoolfl. Java: 77
MUKHERJEE 1961 – In: Bull. Bot. Soc. Beng.: 31
RIDLEY 1893 – In: Trans. Linn. Soc.: 276
BACKER & BAKH.f. 1963 – In: Fl. Java: 198
RIDLEY 1917 – In: J. Fed. Mal. St. Mus.: 16
HEND. 1927 – In: J. Mal Br. R. As. Soc.: 242
Koord. 1923 – In: Fl. Tjibodas: 132
Koord. 1912 – In: Exk. Fl. Java: 450
BACKER & BAKH.f. 1963 – In: Fl. Java: 198
HALL.f. 1912 – In: Meded. Rijksherb.: 26
BACKER 1911: Schoolfl. Java: 77
BURK. 1925 – In: Gard. Bull. S. S.: 345
Koord. 1912 – In: Exk. Fl. Java: 450
HASSK. 1863 – In: Miq., Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat. 1: 154
HASSK. 1842 – In: Flora: Beibl. 2, 31
RIDLEY 1922 – In: Fl. Mal. Pen.: 137
STAPF 1894 – In: Trans. Linn. Soc.: 131
O.K. 1891 – In: Rev. Gen. Pl.: 45
STEEN. 1972: Mount. Fl. Java: pl. 41-5
HASSK. 1863 – In: Miq., Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat. 1: 152
RIDLEY 1922 – In: Fl. Mal. Pen.: 137
CHODAT 1893 – In: Monogr.: 98
Merr. 1921: En. Born.: 324
RIDLEY 1923 – In: J. Str. Br. R. As. Soc.: 53
CRAIB 1931 – In: Fl. Siam. En.: 104
DC. 1824 – In: Prod.: 331
CHODAT 1893 – In: Monogr.: 100
Merr. 1934 – In: Contr. Arn. Arb.: 84
Merr. 1907 – In: Philip. J. Sc.: Bot. 277
HASSK. 1851 – In: Miq., Pl. Jungh. 1: 26
Merr. 1929: Pl. Elm. Born.: 133
HEND. 1949 – In: Mal. Nat. J.: 29