Dactyliophora verticillata
Content
Description
Glabrous except for the inflorescence, calyx and corolla shortly white to brown tomentose.
Leaves opposite; lamina elliptic to ovate, 8-30 by 4-12 cm, mostly truncate to weakly cordate at the base to a petiole 10-30 mm long, attenuate or acuminate and acute at the apex, dull or slightly lustrous on both sides, often paler below; venation pinnate with the midrib and the main laterals distinct on both sides and the midrib prominent below.
Inflorescences at the nodes and on the epicortical runners, a raceme with 1-5 whorls of triads, these sometimes condensed together or displaced into spirals; axis variable, 5-35 mm long, 1-2 mm thick, flowerless in the lower 3-30 mm; triads at the first node 8-10, at the second node (when present) 4-12, at the third node (when present) c. 10, at the fourth and fifth nodes (when present) 4-6; peduncles of the triads 3- 10 mm long; pedicels of the lateral flowers 1-3 mm long.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: New Guinea present, Ceram present, Solomon Islands present
Solomon Islands; Malesia: Ceram, New Guinea.
Notes
Barlow in recognized Dactyliophora verticillata and D. salomonia as distinct species. Additional materials examined show that there is no sharp morphological distinction between the two, and they are here treated as con- specific. The resultant species is relatively uniform vegetatively, although rather polymorphic in inflorescence characters. Specimens from New Britain and the Solomon Islands often have long slender inflorescences with only one whorl of triads.