Anisophyllea apetala Scortechini ex King (1897: 323)

Chen, Xin, He, Hai & Zhang, Li-Bing, 2015, A monograph of the Anisophylleaceae (Cucurbitales) with description of 18 new species of Anisophyllea, Phytotaxa 229 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

1. Anisophyllea apetala Scortechini ex King (1897: 323) ( Figure 1 )

Type:— MALAYSIA. Perak: Without locality, March 1885, B. Scortechini 1808 (lectotype P-00641655!, here designated, isolectotypes? CAL, G-00441119!, K-000493112!, L-0009835!, P-00641656!) .

Trees to 14 m tall; bark smooth, brown, outer bark soft, inner bark yellow and mottled; young branches tenuous and glabrous; buds glabrous. Leaves dimorphic, internodes between similar types of leaves 1.4–5.0 cm long, between two adjacent different types of leaves 0.4–1.8 cm long; small leaves caducous, only leaving small scars on young branches; large leaves petiolate, petiole 5–6 mm long, 1.6–2.2 mm in diam., glabrous; leaf blade oblong-elliptic, ovate-elliptic, or elliptic-lanceolate, 10–21 cm long, 4–9 cm wide, base rounded or slightly cuneate, apex acuminate or caudate with tips up to 1.5 cm long, margins often slightly revolute, chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, lustrous adaxially and somewhat dull when dry abaxially, glabrous on both surfaces; main longitudinal veins 5–7, springing from blade base, middle three veins bold, impressed or flat adaxially and distinctly raised abaxially, outermost two veins rather fine and close to blade margins, one or both of them usually disappearing into blade margins when 6 or 7 main veins present, slightly prominent on both surfaces; transverse veins numerous, sub-parallel or irregular, at angles of 65–85° with midrib; veinlets tessellate and slightly prominent on both surfaces. Inflorescence a supra-axillary raceme or a laxly few-branched panicle, in serials, with both female and male flowers; rachis to 19 cm long, 0.6–1.6 mm in diam., densely tomentose with yellowish brown matted hairs to 0.1 mm long at base of floral fascicles, elsewhere glabrescent, flattened when dry, with floral fascicles unevenly spaced, or sometimes with solitarily setting female flowers on rachis; bracts small, deltoid, ca. 0.4 mm long, 0.25 mm wide, each with one supra-axillary flower; infructescence 1.5–2.5 mm in diam.; flowers unisexual, usually 4-merous, rarely 5-merous; female flowers sessile, receptacle cylindrical and ±quadrangular ca. 0.6 mm long, 1.0 mm in diam., densely tomentose with brownish matted hairs; sepals deltoid, ca. 0.8 mm long, 0.6 mm wide at base, glabrous adaxially, tomentose abaxially; petals absent; stamens 8(–10), shorter than sepals, ca. 0.25 mm long, anthers subglobose, ca. 0.12 mm long; disk 8(–10)-lobed, crenulate; styles 4(–5), free, exserted, 0.5–1.0 mm long, base conical and sparsely pubescent, 0.16–0.30 mm in diam., distally attenuate; male flowers pedicellate, pedicel longer than flowers, 1.0– 1.5 mm long, glabrous; sepals and petals similar to female flowers; stamens 4(–5), episepalous, 0.5–l.0 mm long, filaments dilated at base, ca. 0.4 mm wide, anthers subglobose, ca. 0.19 mm long; disk 4-lobed, crenulate; pistil rudimentary, styles 4, subulate, 0.3–0.5 mm long, ca. 0.2 mm in diam., sparsely tomentose at base. Fruit a drupe, ovoid or ellipsoid, tapering toward both ends, 5.0– 7.5 cm long, 2.5 cm in diam., glabrous, glossy yellow with vertical purple stripes; pericarp woody, thick. Seed one, ellipsoid, 3 cm long, 1 cm in diam.

14 • Phytotaxa 229 (1) © 2015 Magnolia Press

CHEN ET AL.

Flowering and fruiting: —March–August.

Habitat and distribution: —In lowland forests; below 280(–950) m. Malaysia (Johore, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Sabah, Selangor, Trengganu) ( Figure 3 ).

MONOGRAPH OF ANISOPHYLLEACEAE

Phytotaxa 229 (1) © 2015 Magnolia Press • 15

Vernacular names and local usage: — Alisier Dalek bukit, dalek limau manis, dalek tembaga, keolundang, medang beronok, Dalik Limau Manis, Medang burunit, etc. The red-brown, hard, and durable wood is used for house beams.

Taxonomic notes: — Anisophyllea apetala is one of the species in this genus that have flowers without petals. It is similar to A. grandis , but differs in its leaves with thinner blade texture and more often caudate blade apex, its male flowers with longer pedicels, and its fruits more glabrous ( King 1897, Ridley 1922, Ding Hou 1958). In addition, its leaves are also much smaller than those of A. grandis . When A. apetala was published, King (1897) cited 10 gatherings without specifying the holotype, and these specimens represent at least two species including A. corneri as indicated by Ding Hou (1958) who did not lectotypify the name. We examined four duplicates of the specimen B. Scortechini 1808 and here we choose one of them as the lectotype. There might be more duplicates of Scortechini’s collection at CAL as noted as ‘Herb. Calcutt.’ by King (1897).

Additional specimens examined: — MALAYSIA. Perak: Without locality, 150–250 m, May 1883, Dr King’s Collector 1399 ( P); Without locality, 150–250 m, June 1885, Dr King’s Collector 7698 ( L, US); Without locality, no date, Scortechini B . 2247 ( US); Larut , April 1882, King G . 2932 ( U); Trolak FR , 18 March 1967, S . Chelliah 104604 ( L). Sabah: Mile 111, Telupid Ranau Road , 915 m, 07 July 1978, L . Madani SAN 88858 ( K); Telupid , 150–300 m, 11 June 1992, Meijer & L . Madani SAN 131976 ( K, L). Selangor: Kepong , 01 October 1925, Loseles, Abdul Rahuiau 10529 ( K), 06 February 1979, Paling Bin Sow FRI 26593 ( K, L); Kepong , Gunong Bubu , 29 August 1968, P . Selvaraj FRI 6559 ( L), 30 August 1968, P . Selvaraj FRI 6565 ( L). Trengganu: Ulu Brang , July 1937, L . Moysey & Kiah 33725 ( K) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Geographical distribution of Anisophylleaceae and simplified molecular phylogeny derived from Zhang et al. (2007).

FIGURE 3. Geographical distribution of Anisophyllea apetala Scortechini ex King.