Volume 7 > Part 3 > Year 2001 > Page 488 > Melastomataceae > Sonerila

6. Sonerila maculata Roxb.wfo-0001081790

Fl. Ind. ed. Carey & Wall. 1: 180. 1820; Fl. Ind. ed. Carey 1: 177. 1832 [Hort. Beng. 5. 1814, nomen nudum). Fig. 44; Plate XVIII: D.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Erect branched or unbranched herb (sometimes drying somewhat woody), 20–60 cm tall, rarely appearing creeping due to vegetative reproduction, stem quadrangular, often ± winged, covered with 2–3 mm long whitish hairs or furfuraceous-puberulous, often reddish. Leaves crowded and in a rosette or distributed along the stem, those of a pair subequal, membranous, elliptic, oblong or lanceolate, 2.5–11 x 2–5.5 cm, base cuneate, acute, or slightly rounded, sometimes asymmetrically attenuate, apex acute or acuminate, margin coarsely serrate or serrulate, minutely ciliate, lamina with 2–3 pairs of lateral primary veins, the innermost pair departing 1–2.5 cm above the blade base, the cross-veins inconspicuous, glabrous or with some hairs on the veins, often with white spots on the lamina or with white streaks along the midrib, petioles 1–5(–9) cm long, minutely pilose or subglabrous. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary scorpioid cyme with up to 15 flowers, peduncle 3–9 cm long, with scattered short hairs. Hypanthium obconical, 4–7 mm long, covered with minute glands; calyx lobes triangular, 1–1.5 mm long; pedicels 3–4 mm long. Petals ovate or oblong, 8–10 mm long, pink. Stamens 3, anthers 5–10 mm long, bilobed at the base, yellow. Capsule obpyramidal or funnel shaped, obtusely 6-ribbed, 4–7 mm long, on a 3–4 mm long tapering stalk, glabrous or rarely setose.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Nan, Tak; NORTH EASTERN: Loei, Sakon Nakhon; EASTERN: Nakhon Ratchasima; SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi (Sai Yok, Kanburi – type of Sonerila notata: Put 1844 -BK K), Phetchaburi; SOUTH-EASTERN: Sa Kaeo, Chachoengsao, Chanthaburi, Trat; PENINSULAR: Chumphon (Tasan/Tha Sae – type of S. ciliata: Kloss 6982 = 6582 -K), Ranong, Surat Thani, Phangnga (Takuapa, Bangwan – type of var. clarkeana: Kerr 17547 -K), Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla, Yala (vicinity of Betong – syntypes of S. angulata: Kerr 7473, Kerr 7473a -BK E K), Narathiwat.

Distribution : India (type), Burma (Mergui – type of Sonerila collina), China, Indochina (Tonkin – type of S. rivularis, Cambodia – syntypes of S. quadrangularis), Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo.

Ecology : Common in damp evergreen forests, often scattered on mossy rocks in shady places, lowlands to 2,400 m alt.

Vernacular : Prae nam ngoen (แปร้น้ำเงิน)(Chanthaburi).

Notes: Often recognizable by white spots on the leaves, but very variable in leaf size and colar.