Gastonia serratifolia
Content
Description
Shrub or small tree, sometimes epiphytic, up to 27 m, with clear bole to 15 m, dbh 34 cm, crown sparsely branched with leaves crowded at the ends of the branches, glabrous.
Leaves up to 80 by 20 cm;
Inflorescence terminal, glabrous, with a stout primary axis 15-25 cm long, bearing scattered or clustered branches along its length and ending in an umbel of c. 10 branches;
Petals 5-9, slightly fleshy, fully separated.
Stamens variable in number, (7-) 14-5 5;
Ovary glabrous, smoothly rounded below, slightly constricted below the calyx;
Fruit c. 9 by 7 mm (without stylopodium), the flattened stylopodium ending in a ring or double row of radiating subulate stigmatic arms, black when ripe, the fleshy exocarp enclosing compressed crustaceous pyrenes.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo (Sabah present); Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); New Guinea present; Philippines (Philippines present); Sulawesi (Sulawesi present), Balabac present, Central W. Sumatra present, Enggano I present, Flores present, Johore present, Lepo-Lepo present, Lesser Sunda Is present, Luwuk present, Minahassa present, N. Borneo present, N. Moluccas present, NW. & SW. Irian present, Palawan present, Schouten I present, Sibolga present, Solomon Is present, Sumba present, Sunda Straits present, Talaud Is present, Timor present, Vogelkop present, W. Borneo present, Waigeu I present, West Java present, Wetar present, east of Pontianak, Karimata present, islet Dwars in den Weg present
Solomon Is.; in Malesia: Central W. Sumatra (Sibolga, Enggano I.), Malay Peninsula (Johore), Sunda Straits (islet Dwars in den Weg), West Java, Lesser Sunda Is. (Sumba, Timor, Wetar, Flores), W. Borneo (east of Pontianak, Karimata), N. Borneo (Sabah), Philippines (Palawan, Balabac), Celebes (Lepo-Lepo, Luwuk, Minahassa), N. Moluccas (Talaud Is.), New Guinea (Vogelkop, NW. & SW. Irian, Schouten I., Waigeu I.). .
Notes
The entire or serrate nature of the leaf margins, the number of ovary cells, and especially the number of stamens are variable characters but show no discernable geographical segregation. The outer bark is described as light brown, with small oblong brittle scales. Inner bark, leaves and inflorescences with copious sticky juice. Wood soft white. The petals are variously described as purple, light green, and white.