Volume 7 > Part 3 > Year 2001 > Page 425 > Melastomataceae > Dissochaeta

5. Dissochaeta echinulata (Naudin) Clausingwfo-0000158396

comb. nov.— Marumia echinulata Naudin, Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. 3, 15: 280. 1851.

Accepted Name : Macrolenes echinulata (Naudin) Bakh.f.
Rec. Trav. Bot. Néerl. 40: 209. 1943.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Scrambling shrub or woody climber, branchlets with minute stellate hairs and with few to many 2–3 mm long dark maroon bristles, interpetiolar ridges prominent. Leaves elliptic to ovate, 7.5–13 x 3.5–6 cm, base rounded to cordate, apex acuminate, tip to 1 cm long, lamina with 2–3 pairs of lateral primary veins, young with a purple brown stellate tomentum on both surfaces, mature leaves glabrous, petioles 0.5–1 cm long, with stellate hairs. Inflorescences in the upper leaf axils 4–7 cm long and with 1–5 flowers, bracts 1–4 mm long, linear, caducous. Hypanthium campanulate urceolate, 10–12 mm long, with stellate hairs and long bristles, calyx rim, 2–3 mm high, lobes broadly triangular, 5–7 mm long, ovary ½ as long as the hypanthium, stamen pockets extending to the base of the ovary. Petals broadly ovate, about 18 mm long, white. Stamens 8, dimorphic, episepalous (outer) ones with L-shaped anthers, about 15 mm long, connective basally prolonged for about 5 mm and with a ring of 5–7 filiform appendages (ventrally up to 4 mm long, dorsally up to 7 mm long), epipetalous (inner) stamens with C- or S-shaped anthers, about 10 mm long, connective barely prolonged below the anthers and with two ventral and two dorsal filiform appendages. Berry dry and somewhat woody, urceolate, about 10 mm across, covered with deciduous stellate hairs and persistent bristles.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Narathiwat (Su-ngai Padi – type of var. esetosa: Bourke s.n. -BK K).

Distribution : Malay Peninsula (Malacca – type of Marumia echinulata), Sumatra, Java.

Ecology : Along margins of primary or old secondary forests at low altitudes.

Vernacular : Phlong lueat nok (พลองเลือดนก)(Peninsular).

Notes: Dissochaeta echinulata is doubtfully distinct from D. reformata Blume; according to J.F. Maxwell, the two species may be distinguished by their petioles and connective prolongations, which are of different lengths.