Volume 7 > Part 4 > Year 2002 > Page 757 > Myristicaceae > Knema

8. Knema globularia (Lam.) Warb.wfo-0001085244

Mon. Myrist. 601. 1897; J.Sinclair, Gard. Bull. Singapore 16: 325, fig. 18. 1958; l.c., 18: 214. 1961; W.J.de Wilde, Blumea 25: 411. 1979; l.c., 32: 120, fig. 2. 1987; Fl. Mal. 14: 265. 2000.— Myristica globularia Lam., Mem. Acad. Sci. Paris 162. 1791.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Tree 5–20 m. Twigs towards apex 1–2(–2.5) mm diam., at first with hairs 0.1–0.3 mm long, glabrescent; bark lower down rarely tending to crack, never flaking. Leaves: blade membranous or thin-coriaceous, oblong or lanceolate, 6–18(–24) by 1.5–4(–7) cm, usually with a blackish metallic lustre above on drying; lower surface at first with short sessile stellate hairs ca 0.1 mm long, glabrescent, usually very finely papillose (x 30!); midvein sunk above; nerves 10–18(–22) pairs, faint, flat or sunk above; tertiary veining fine, inconspicuous; leaf bud with hairs 0.1–0.3 mm. Inflorescences usually at least partly 1–5 mm pedunculate, simple or furcate, to 10 mm long; 5–20-flowered in male, 1–10-flowered in female; flowers woolly hairy (0.05–)0.1–0.3(–0.7) mm. Male flowers pedicel 3–11 mm long, bracteole above median; bud broadly obovoid, 3–5 mm diam., creamy or reddish inside; lobes splitting the bud to ca ⅔ deep; staminal disc circular or trigonous, flat, including anthers 1.5–2.5 mm diam.; anthers 8–13(–16); free part of column 0.5(–1) mm long, the remainder usually coalescent with the basal part of the perianth. Female flowers pedicel 1.5–4 mm long, bracteole nearly apically; bud ellipsoid-ovoid, 4–5 by 2.5–3.5 mm. Fruits 1–5 per infructescence, ellipsoid, subglobose, or sometimes ± pear-shaped, 1.2–2 by 1–1.5 cm, with hairs 0.1–0.2 mm long, ± glabrescent; stalk 3–10 mm long.

Thailand : NORTH-EASTERN: Loei; EASTERN: Chaiyaphum, Nakhon Ratchasima, Buri Ram, Ubon Ratchathani; CENTRAL: Saraburi; SOUTH-EASTERN: Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi, Trat; PENINSULAR: Surat Thani, Phangnga, Phuket, Krabi, Trang, Songkhla, Yala, Narathiwat.

Distribution : India (Assam, 1 somewhat doubtfully identified specimen), China (Yunnan), Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malay Peninsula (type), Singapore, Sumatra, western Java.

Ecology : Primary and secondary evergreen forests on hill slopes; in S Thailand and Malesia often in coastal areas, islands, rocky hill sides, riverbanks, often along seashores, 0–800 m alt. Flowering: November–February; fruiting: January–December.

Vernacular : Krabao lueat (กระเบาเลือด)(Phitsanulok); mueat khon (เหมือดคน)(Phichit); tin tang (ตีนตัง)(Udon Thani); ma lueat (มะเลือด)(Nakhon Phanom); lueat raet (เลือดแรด)(Saraburi); si suang (สีซวง)(Chachoengsao); ching chong (ชิงชอง)(Rayong); ka han (กาฮั้น)(Chumphon); lueat ma (เลือดม้า)(Nakhon Si Thammarat, Narathiwat); la han (ลาหัน)(Songkhla); han (หัน), han lat (หันลัด)(Peninsular); tu-mo-yo (ตูโมะยอ)(Malay-Narathiwat).

Notes: Flowers cream or yellowish inside, but sometimes recorded as red for Thailand; staminal disc red, and purple-red towards the anthers.

Variation. Specimens from the Asian continent, e.g. from Thailand, differ partly in hav ing slightly larger male flowers with the mature perianth buds 3.5–5 mm diam.

The collections van Welzen (with Forest Research & Development Unit) 109 and Chayamarit c.s. T 30367, both male, can provisionally be named "a form of Knema globularia". They are distinct by having larger leaves without a blackish lustre on drying, and shorter hairs on the perianth, only ca 0.1 mm long.

Knema globularia resembles K. globulatericia through which it is connected with K. latericia, the latter differing in various characters, such as the usually flaking bark of the twigs, and convex staminal disc.