Meliosma pinnata
Content
Description
Evergreen, sometimes deciduous tree, small to up to c. 42 m.
Leaves 2-11-jugate;
Sepals 5 or 4, ovate, unequal, the 3 or 4 inner ones 1-1.5 mm, the outer 1 or 2 usually smaller, often minute, sometimes lowered on the pedicel, sometimes slightly keeled, glabrous or pubescent outside, all entire, usually ciliolate.
Panicles terminal, erect, sometimes somewhat pendulous, dense to lax, widely to narrowly pyramidal, 10-55(-70) cm, usually profusely branched up to the 4th order, bearing numerous solitary to usually crowded flowers;
Fruit (sub)globose to obovoid, when ripe (3—)4—10(— 11) mm diam., with thin mesocarp;
Distribution
Asia-Temperate, Asia-Tropical: New Guinea present; Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka present), Japan present, New Britain present, SE. Asia present
Throughout SE. Asia, from Sri Lanka and China to Japan; throughout Malesia as far as New Guinea (incl. New Britain). .
Notes
Meliosma pinnata covers a very large area in which it has developed a complex and wide variation pattern. It can be divided up into nine well-marked subspecies. Four of these are widely distributed, whereas five have a limited distribution. The first group, the subspecies arnottiana, ridleyi, macrophylla and ferruginea, are considered primary subspecies; they centre in W. Malesia. The subspecies of the second group occur scattered at the periphery of the area of M. pinnata; I consider them secondary off splits from the primary subspecies, viz. subsp. pinnata and subsp. angustifolia (MERR.) BEUS. from subsp. arnottiana, and subsp. pendula, subsp. sylva-tica, and subsp. humilis from subsp. macrophylla.
The areas of the secondary subspecies fall partly or entirely within the area of the primary subspecies from which they are derived, but they are ecologically isolated from these, usually by preference for different altitudinal zones; transitional or hybrid forms are sometimes found. The areas of the four primary subspecies, on the other hand, all touch or only slightly overlap mutually, but generally they are perfectly replacing, and usually there is also different ecological preference. Due to the scarcity of collections from critical regions, especially Sumatra, Borneo and Sulawesi, it is mostly not clear how the relation is in contact zones. There is some evidence that one or two mutually may behave as good species, where one or two others may be connected by transitional forms, but in general the evidence required is still wanting. In this respect the picture is not so complete as it is in M. simplicifolia. The type subspecies does not occur in Malesia.
The areas of the secondary subspecies fall partly or entirely within the area of the primary subspecies from which they are derived, but they are ecologically isolated from these, usually by preference for different altitudinal zones; transitional or hybrid forms are sometimes found. The areas of the four primary subspecies, on the other hand, all touch or only slightly overlap mutually, but generally they are perfectly replacing, and usually there is also different ecological preference. Due to the scarcity of collections from critical regions, especially Sumatra, Borneo and Sulawesi, it is mostly not clear how the relation is in contact zones. There is some evidence that one or two mutually may behave as good species, where one or two others may be connected by transitional forms, but in general the evidence required is still wanting. In this respect the picture is not so complete as it is in M. simplicifolia. The type subspecies does not occur in Malesia.