e-Flora of Thailand
Volume 8 > Part 1 > Year 2005 > Page 100 > Euphorbiaceae > Aporosa
16. Aporosa stellifera Hook.f.wfo-0000249666
Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 352. 1887; Whitmore. Tree Fl. Malaya 2: 60. 1973. Fig. 21. A-B.
Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.
Description : Tree, up to 20 m high; young branches glabrous. Stipules caducous. Leaves: petiole slightly reniform, 9–33 by 0.8–2.5 mm, pulvini distinct; blade ovate to elliptic, 11–33 by 3.5–13 cm, length/width ratio 2.4–3.1, chartaceous, drying yellowish green to greyish green on both sides, base rounded to cuneate, basal glands absent, margin subentire, marginal glands indistinct, apex acuminate to cuspidate, completely glabrous, disc-like glands absent to seldom along margin; venation (slightly) raised on both sides, nerves in 8–14 pairs. Inflorescences axillary to ramiflorous. Staminate inflorescences 1–10 together, 7–44 by 1.–2.5 mm, subglabrous to sparsely tomentose; peduncle 1–3 mm long; bracts triangular, 0.3–1.2 mm long; glomerules with 7–10 densely set flowers, spaced (0.5–1 mm) at base of rachis to touching at apex. Staminate flowers 0.3–0.9 mm long; pedicel 0–0.2 mm long; sepals 3 or 4, obovate, 0.4–0.8 mm long; stamens 2, not to slightly exserted, 0.3–0.9 mm long; anthers 0.1–0.2 mm long; pistillode absent to present. Pistillate inflorescences 2–6 together, 4–7 mm long, very sparsely puberulous; flowers up to 7, at apical end of rachis; bracts ovate, 0.4–0.8 mm long. Pistillate flowers 3–4.5 mm long; pedicel 1–3(–7 in fruit) mm long; sepals 5 or 6, ovate, reflexed, 0.7–1.2 mm long; ovary 3(4)-locular, glabrous; stigmas sessile, 1–1.5 mm long, bifid to almost completely divided. Fruits ovoid to ellipsoid, not stiped, not beaked, 14–21 by 11–18 mm, glabrous, fleshy, pericarp up to 3 mm thick; septae and column glabrous. Seeds 6.5–10.5 by 5.5–10 by 3–5 mm.
Thailand : PENINSULAR: Yala (Than To), Narathiwat (Nikom Waeng).
Distribution : Malay Peninsula (type), Sumatra.
Ecology : Primary (evergreen), disturbed, or riverine forests, bamboo forests, belukar or seasonally swampy areas, along ridges, river banks and roads, evergreen forests, on hillsides, on granitic soil, 30–400 m alt.
Vernacular : Mueat kliang (เหมือดเกลี้ยง)(Peninsular).
Notes: Four collections, three in fruit from Peninsular Malaysia (KEP-FRI 18380 & 19189; KLU 3401), and one with staminate inflorescences from Peninsular Thailand (Larsen & Larsen 33022) are intermediate between Aporosa frutescens and A. stellifera. The leaves are reminiscent of a glabrous A. frutescens, but the fruits are like those of A. sarawakensis, and the staminate inflorescences fit somewhere between A. frutescens and the four collections are probably young or poor specimens of this A. stellifera (the Thai specimen is treated as such).