Tabernaemontana polyneura
Content
Description
Tree to 21 m tall, to 60 cm dbh.
Bark brown or grey, fissured or scaly.
Leaves opposite, ocrea large and sticky;
Inflorescence 7-11.5 cm long, glabrous;
Sepals ovate, 2.8-3 by 1.6-2 mm, 1.4-1.9 times as long as wide, apex obtuse, more rarely rounded or acute, glabrous, not ciliate.
Stamens inserted in the lower half of the corolla tube;
Ovaries c. 2 mm high;
Fruit oblique ellipsoid, to 37 by 14 cm, apex acuminate to obtuse.
Taxonomy
Leeuwenberg (1991) synonymised T. polyneura from Peninsular Malaysia under T. dichotoma from Sri Lanka and included a number of specimens from northern Burma in the species. The status of the poor material from Burma is obscure. However, the material from Sri Lanka and Malaysia is appreciably different in the secondary venation, which is highly visible and sunken above in T. dichotoma and obscure or faint in T. polyneura. Also the Malaysian material tends to have acuminate leaf apices rather than rounded ones, the fruit is narrower and the sepals obtuse to acute rather than rounded. The flowers of the Sri Lankan material are more robust.