Aglaia simplicifolia
Content
Description
Small tree up to 8(-20) m.
Outer bark greyish-brown; in- ner bark reddish-brown; sapwood yellow or red; latex white.
Leaves simple, 15–32 by 4.5–10 cm wide, acuminate or caudate at apex, cuneate at the slightly asymmetrical base, upper surface often shiny and minutely pitted, the lower surface usually with occasional stellate hairs or scales, that surface sometimes densely covered with hairs or scales, veins 11–18 on each side of the mid- rib, the reticulation sometimes subprominent on upper surface, usually visible on lower surface; petiole up to 4 cm, with a swelling 0.5 cm long adjacent to the lamina and with occasional hairs or scales like those on the twigs.
Inflorescence up to 15 cm long and 10 cm wide, peduncle up to 1 cm, peduncle, rachis, branches and pedicels densely covered with stellate hairs like those on the twigs.
Flowers up to 2 cm long, pedicel up to 2 mm.
Petals 5.
Staminal tube nearly as long as the corolla, obovoid, with a small aperture, apical margin entire; anthers about half the length of the tube, broadly ovoid, in the upper half of the tube, not or just protruding through the aperture.
Fruits up to 4 cm long and wide, obovoid or subglobose, brown, red, orange or pale yellow, indéhiscent, with a thick woody pericarp up to 5 mm thick and densely covered with stellate hairs on the outside; pericarp often longitudinally ridg- ed.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; India present; Laos (Laos present); Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Sumatera (Sumatera present); Thailand (Thailand present)
India, Laos, Thailand; Malesia:Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo
Taxonomy
Aglaia sterculioides is treated as conspecific with A. simplicifolia and appears to be indistinguishable from it except in the fruit. The infructescence of ‘A. sterculioides’ has 1 to 3 fruits and a peduncle 4–13.5 cm long. The fruit is narrowly ellipsoid, 7–7.5 cm long, 1.7–2 cm wide, with a stipe 1.5 cm long and a beak 1 cm long, longitudinally ridged, splits along the most prominent ridge on the concave side, the pericarp is thin, c. 1 mm, and the seed is 3.5 cm long and 1.5 cm wide.
Aglaia simplicifolia has simple leaves; the shoot apex, petiole, inflores- cence and fruit are densely covered with stellate hairs. The leaves are glabrous and the reticulation is sometimes subprominent on the upper surface of the leaves. This species resembles A. oligophylla, but it has simple leaves. It is variable in the texture of the leaflets which may be shiny or dull and the prominence of the midrib, lateral veins and reticulation, which are more prominent when the leaflet is shiny.