Diospyros fecunda H. R. Fletcher
- Dataset
- Notes on South-East Asian Diospyros L. (Ebenaceae, Ericales): commonly misidentified species in mainland South-East Asia
- Rank
- SPECIES
Classification
- kingdom
- Plantae
- phylum
- Tracheophyta
- class
- Magnoliopsida
- order
- Ericales
- family
- Ebenaceae
- genus
- Diospyros
- species
- Diospyros fecunda
biology_ecology
Ecology Diospyros fecunda is endemic to Thailand and found in evergreen forest at 400 – 650 m elevations.
description
Description Tree, 7 – 20 m tall. Twigs glabrous. Bark brown, shallowly fissured, inner bark brown, sapwood whitish yellow. Leaves elliptic, 8 – 15 × 3.5 – 6 cm, base attenuate, slightly decurrent, apex acuminate or subcaudate with obtuse tip, blade glabrous on both sides; lateral veins 6 – 9 on each side, arched near the margin but not directly anastomosing, tertiary veins reticulate or irregularly scalariform; petiole slender, 0.5 – 1 cm long, glabrous. Male inflorescences ramiflorous in short fascicle. Calyx green, tubular-campanulate; lobes 4, shortly divided, semicircular. Corolla creamy white, salverform; lobes 4, divided ± halfway to the base, oblong, curved outward. Female flowers not seen. Fruits solitary, green, turning black when dried, broadly ovoid, 3 – 4 × 3 – 4 cm, usually slightly wider than long, subglabrous, usually hairy near the base with yellowish hairs, pericarp smooth, shallowly lobed or longitudinally splitting near the base when dried; fruit stalk very short (subsessile) to ca 0.5 cm long, stout. Fruiting calyx slightly accrescent, 1 – 1.5 cm in diam.; lobes 3 – 7, irregularly divided when mature, spreading or reflexed, glabrescent outside, rather densely hairy inside. Seeds (8 –) 12 – 16, flat, asymmetrically elliptic, 1.5 – 2.5 × 0.7 – 1 cm; endosperm smooth.
description
Figs 7 G – H, 9
discussion
– Notes: Fletcher (1937) cited Kerr 7658 as the only gathering accompanying the original description of D. fecunda. Specimens have been located at BM, E and K, and all are well preserved. Four sheets in K were annotated as ‘ type’ while the other sheets in BM, E and K were either unannotated or annotated as ‘ co-type’ in H. R. Fletcher’s handwriting. Among those sheets in K, we select the most complete specimen (K 000792545) with fruit attaching on a twig as the lectotype.
materials_examined
Distribution THAILAND • Phatthalung [Sinbumrong 355 (BKF)], Songkhla [Niyomdham 3065 (BKF)], Yala [Kerr 7658 (BM, E, K); Middleton 2950 (BKF)]. Specimens of this species have been rarely collected. It is found in the very southernmost tip of Thailand and may also occur in Peninsular Malaysia.
materials_examined
– Type: THAILAND • Siam, Pattani, Yala, Betong; 26 Aug. 1923; Kerr 7658; lectotype: K [K 000792545]!, here designated; isolectotypes: BM [BM 00084634]!, E [E 00318461]!, K [K 000792546, K 000792547, K 000792548, Carpological Collection]!).
Name
- Synonyms
- Diospyros borneensis Hiern
- Homonyms
- Diospyros fecunda H. R. Fletcher