Anthocarapa nitidula
Content
Description
Tree to 30 m; bole to 65 cm diam., often crooked; buttresses nil or small, to 1 m tall, steep, thin; crown dense with ascending branches.
Bark grey-brown, smooth, lenticellate to shallowly vertically fissured; inner bark red but pinkish-brown within, Toona- scented or sometimes onion-scented (Maiden, l.c.); sapwood cream; heartwood pinkish.
Leaves 15–37 cm, (1–)2–3(–5 on epicormics)- jugate, subglabrous, sometimes with onion-smell when fresh, coriaceous, subglabrous, drying yellowish; petiole 3.4–4.5 cm, swollen at base, ± flattened adaxially in sicco; rachis 5–10(–13) cm.
Flowers sweetly scented, pedicel c. 2 mm, articulated with pseudopedicel, 2–5 mm, ± pubescent.
Petals 5, c. 2–3 mm long, oblong, acute, adpressed pubescent without, creamish-white.
Staminal tube glabrous, fleshy, pale cream; anthers 10, elliptic.
Ovary and style ± adpressed pubescent.
Fruits solitary or paired, axes up to 8 cm long, pedicels 7 mm diam., pericarp c. 5 cm long and in diam., globose-pyriform, scaling, brown, somewhat woody, 1–3-seeded, distinctly asymmetric when 1-seeded.
Seeds c. 3 cm long, 1.5 cm diam., flattened adaxially, convex abaxially; sarcotesta scarlet; cotyledons green.
Distribution
(?) Philippines present, Asia-Tropical, Australasia: Queensland (Queensland present), Central Provinces present, Djampea present, Flores present, Irian Jaya: Manokwari; Papua New Guinea: E Highl. present, New Caledonia present, New Hebrides present, Solomon Islands present, Timor present, Western present, northern New South Wales present
Solomon Islands, Australia (Queensland, northern New South Wales), New Hebrides, New Caledonia; Malesia: (?) Philippines, Celebes (Djampea), Lesser Sunda Islands (Flores, Timor), New Guinea (Irian Jaya: Manokwari; Papua New Guinea: E Highl., Western and Central Provinces)
Taxonomy
The Philippine record is based on Loher 255 (K, LE, M, P, US) from Luzon, Mt Arayat, a specimen previously referred to Pseudocarapa Hemsl.; its vegetative parts and overall floral morphology including pollen features fit Anthocarapa, though the (male) flowers are 4-petalled, and it may well represent a second species, resembling certain species of Dysoxylum.
Uses
In Australia, the timber is used for flooring, cases, etc. (Francis, 1. a). Notes on the wood anatomy are provided by Sarlin (l.c.) and Pennington (l.c.), who also gives a detailed description of pollen features.
Citation
F.M. Bailey 1913: Compreh. Catal. Queensl. Pl.: 88.
F.M.Bailey 1899 – In: Queensl. Fl.: 233
C.DC. 1878 – In: DC., Monogr. Phan. 1: 590
T.D.Penn. 1975: p. 501. – In: Blumea: t. 13b.
Guillaumin 1934 – In: Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.: 246.
Guillaumin 1934 – In: Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.: 246
Maiden 1907: p. 129. – In: For. Fl. N.S.W.: 1.105
Sarlin 1954: Bois For. Nouv.-Caléd: 170: t. 73.
Francis 1951: Rain For. Trees Austral.: 214.
Mabb. 1988: p. 71. – In: Fl. Nouv.-Caléd. et Dép.: t. 13.