Horsfieldia pachycarpa
Content
Description
Tree 5-25 m.
Leaves membranous or thinly coriaceous, elliptic-oblong to lanceolate, 17-30 by 4-11 cm, base attenuate, apex acute-acuminate;
Inflorescences subglabrous or with sparse stellate hairs 0.1-0.2(-0.3) mm, 2-4 times branched;
Fruits 1-6 per infructescence, (broadly) ellipsoid, often ± ridged towards the base, rounded or tapering into a short pseudostalk, apex rounded, 3.5-4.5 by 2-3 cm, minutely pubescent towards the base, or glabrescent, drying blackish (brown), usually with conspicuous coarse, paler coloured lenticel-like tubercles;
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: New Guinea present, Central present, Idenburg River present, Madang present, Morobe present, Papua New Guinea present, Snow Mountains present, W Papua Barat present, West Sepik present, Western, Eastern, and Southern Highlands present
Malesia: New Guinea (W Papua Barat: Snow Mountains, Idenburg River.; Papua New Guinea: West Sepik, Western, Eastern, and Southern Highlands, Madang, Morobe, Central Provinces).
Taxonomy
1 Horsfieldia pachycarpa differs from the resembling H. tuberculata in the thick woody-fleshy, largely pubescent perianth, and the pubescent ovary and fruit. Fruiting specimens may also resemble H. laevigata, a species obviously closely related. The male flowers of H. pachycarpa are ± pear-shaped, and of a more fleshy-woody consistency; those of H. laevigata are much more globose, of a more membranous-herbaceous consistency, with the pedicel more slender.
On account of the somewhat resembling male flowers, H. pachycarpa seems related to H. corrugata, a species from similar montane habitats, differing in the much larger corrugated fruits and the flowers which probably always have large, thickened, blackish dots, absent in H. pachycarpa.
Horsfieldia tuberculata var. crassivalva (from the Louisiade Archipelago), known only from fruit with also a thick pericarp, is similar as well. 2 Some deviating specimens (almost all collected above 1000 m altitude) have been discussed by De Wilde (1. c: 134); the female perianths measure 2-2.8 by 1.8-2.3 mm, the fruits 2.5-3.5 by 1.7-2 cm, and they have a thick woody pericarp. In appearance and size of the fruits these specimens seem intermediate with the widespread and common H. laevigata.
On account of the somewhat resembling male flowers, H. pachycarpa seems related to H. corrugata, a species from similar montane habitats, differing in the much larger corrugated fruits and the flowers which probably always have large, thickened, blackish dots, absent in H. pachycarpa.
Horsfieldia tuberculata var. crassivalva (from the Louisiade Archipelago), known only from fruit with also a thick pericarp, is similar as well. 2 Some deviating specimens (almost all collected above 1000 m altitude) have been discussed by De Wilde (1. c: 134); the female perianths measure 2-2.8 by 1.8-2.3 mm, the fruits 2.5-3.5 by 1.7-2 cm, and they have a thick woody pericarp. In appearance and size of the fruits these specimens seem intermediate with the widespread and common H. laevigata.