Aglaia sapindina
Content
Description
Small tree 4–12(–30) m.
Bark greenish-brown, greyish- brown or reddish-brown, flaking in small scales, with scattered small black lenticels or longitudinal lines of reddish-brown lenticels; middle bark red or white, fibrous; inner bark pink or white, pale brown or white, fibrous; sapwood yellowish-brown, pink or white; either with no exudate or with some white latex.
Leaves 21–65(–95) cm long, 16–50 cm wide; petiole 6–17.5(–29) cm, petiole, rachis and petiolules with scales like those on the twigs.
Inflorescence 7–28 cm long, 2–24 cm wide, densely covered with reddish-brown stellate scales; sessile or with a short pe- duncle up to 5 mm, peduncle, rachis and branches with few to numerous peltate scales like those on the twigs, the distal branches and petiolules densely covered with stellate scales or hairs.
Flowers 1–3 mm long and wide; pedicels 0.5–1 mm; with numerous reddish-brown stellate scales on the outer surface.
Petals 5.
Staminal tube less than half the length of the corolla, shallowly cup-shaped with the apical margin incurved and shallowly 5–lobed; anthers c. 0.2 mm long and wide, ovoid, with a pale margin, inserted just below and protruding through the aperture of the tube, pointing towards the centre of the flower.
Fruits 2–2.5 cm long, 1.5–2 cm in diam., indehiscent, ellipsoid or sub- globose, red, yellow or orange, the pericarp thin, soft, with numerous or densely covered with stellate scales, glabrescent.
Seed complete- ly surrounded by an orange or yellow, translucent aril; testa brown; cotyledons green.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present, Bougainville present, Northern Territory & Queensland: Cape York Peninsula present
Bougainville, Australia (Northern Territory & Queensland: Cape York Peninsula); Malesia: Moluccas, New Guinea
Taxonomy
The separation of A. sapindina from non–flowering specimens of A. euryanthera may be difficult, but the latter species usually has a greater proportion of very dark purple peltate scales on midrib and peltate scales rather than stellate scales on the inflorescence, infructescence and fruits.
The leaves of Aglaia sapindina have a characteristic mixture of peltate scales (some very dark purplish–brown) and stellate or fimbriate–peltate scales on the midrib below; with dark reddish–brown pits on lower leaflets surface and midrib; sometimes interspersed with these are pale brown stellate scales. The scales on the distal branches of the inflorescence are always reddish–brown and stellate.