Phoebe nicobarica Rasingam et al. (2021: 53)

Chakrabarty, Tapas, Kumar, Anand & Ghoshal, Partha Pratim, 2023, A revision of the genus Phoebe (Lauraceae) in the Indo-Burmese region, Phytotaxa 606 (1), pp. 29-42 : 38-39

6. Phoebe nicobarica Rasingam et al. (2021: 53) .

Type:— INDIA. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Great Nicobar Island, Laful North , immat. fr., 13 June 1981, D.K. Hore 8798 (holotype: PBL0005000002 !; isotypes: L0531031 !, PBL0005000003 !, PBL0000027258 !) .

Trees, 10–12 m high; bud scale scars in dense rings around twigs; branchlets greyish pilose when young, soon glabrous. Leaves more or less clustered at the ends of the twigs, obovate-elliptic, 14–29 × 5.5–12 cm, acute or cuneate at base, acuminate (acumen 5–10 mm long, acute) at apex, thinly coriaceous, glabrous above, scattered white pilose (mainly on veins) beneath, greenish above when dry, pale brown and glaucescent beneath; lateral veins 9–12 pairs, prominent and slightly incised above, raised beneath; tertiary veins faint above, prominent beneath, percurrent; veinlets inconspicuous above, faint beneath; petioles 15–20 mm long, glabrous. Panicles 20–28 cm long, few-branched, axis and branches scattered puberulous, glabrescent. Flowers not seen. Fruits (slightly immature) subglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam.; fruiting pedicels ca. 5 mm long, slightly thickened; fruiting tepals broadly ovate-oblong to suborbicular, apiculate, ca. 5 × 3 mm, scattered puberulous outside, ciliate.

Phenology: —Fruiting in June.

Habitat: —Rare in inland forests along stream bank at sea level.

Distribution: — India (Great Nicobar Island)—endemic.

Specimens examined: —Known from the type collections only.

Notes: —Closely related to Phoebe grandis ( Nees von Esenbeck 1832: 32) Merrill (1934: 61) of Southeast Asia and Malesia, differing mainly by the subglobose rather than ellipsoid to ovoid fruits.