Lepidaria kingii
Content
Description
Glabrous.
Leaves opposite; lamina narrowly ovate to ovate, 9-20 by 3.5-11 cm, shortly cuneate to slightly cordate at the base to a petiole 10-30 mm long, attenuate or acuminate and usually acute at the apex, dull on both sides or slightly lustrous above; venation pinnate with the midrib and the main laterals visible on both sides and the midrib prominent below.
Inflorescencess at the nodes, a sessile involucrate capitate spike of usually 2 decussate pairs of flowers; involucre 50-85 mm long, red, comprising 6-10 pairs of bracts, the upper ones oblong, keeled, acute, very slightly and finely undulate near the apex; floral axis 4-8 mm long; lateral bracts enclosing the flowers 15-30 mm long, keeled, acute.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), Peninsular Thailand present
Peninsular Thailand; Malesia: Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo.
Notes
The difference in corolla symmetry used by Danser to distinguish Lepidaria forbesii and L. malaiana from L. kingii is only a transitory feature of anthesis. Corolla length is often longer in Bornean specimens than in Peninsular Malaysian ones, but the differences cited by Danser to distinguish these taxa do not exist. Even when L. kingii is circumscribed to include L. forbesii and L. malaiana, the species is not very polymorphic.