Vavaea tubiflora
Content
Description
Tree to 30 m; bole to 25 cm dbh.
Bark smooth, grey-brown with large pale lenticels; inner bark pale brown, camphor- or soap-scented.
Leaves (5–)10–23.5 by (2–)4.5–l 1 cm, obovate or elliptic, glabrous or veins with a few hairs; base acute to cuneate; apex acute to obtuse, sometimes acuminate; nerves 9–13 on each side; petiole 0.9–3 cm.
Petals 5 (6), 3.6–6.5 cm long, ligulate, imbricate, whitish violet.
Filaments united almost to apex, free in distal 5–9 mm; tube 3.5–5.3 cm long, 4–8 mm diam., cylindrical, weakly curved, violet, most intensely at apex, pilose on both sur-aces, sometimes split down one side; anthers 18–21, 2.5–3 by 0.5–1.5 mm, elongate, glabrous or connective with a few hairs.
Ovary 5– or 6–locular, sometimes hairy within, locules 8–10-ovulate, the ovules superposed, in 2 ranks; style stout, white; stylehead subdiscoid.
Berry at least 3 cm diam., globose with small beak, or ovoid; pericarp thick, tough.
Seeds 2.