e-Flora of Thailand
Volume 8 > Part 2 > Year 2007 > Page 371 > Euphorbiaceae > Macaranga
11. Macaranga indica Wightwfo-0000232018
Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient. 5: 23, t. 1883. 1852; Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient. 6: 5, t. 1949, ii. 1853; Müll.Arg. in DC., Prodr. 15, 2: 1009. 1866; Kurz, Forest Fl. Burma 2: 387. 1877; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 446. 1887, Trimen, Handb. Fl. Ceylon 4: 70. 1898; Pax & K.Hoffm. in Engl., Pflanzenr. IV. 147. vii: 349. 1914; Parkinson, Forest Fl. Andaman Is. 238. 1923; Gagnep. in Lecomte, Fl. Indo-Chine 5: 444. 1926; Hurasawa & Tanaka, Fl. E. Himalaya 179. 1966; Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. 23: 93. 1969; Whitmore & Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. 25: 241. 1971; Whitmore, Kew Bull. 25: 241. 1971; Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. 26: 290. 1972; Whitmore, Tree Fl. Malaya 2: 107. 1973; Gard. Bull. Singapore 31: 54. 1978; Chiu, Guihaia 2: 148. 1982, iin clavi; Philcox in Dassan., Revis. Handb. Fl. Ceylon 11: 169. 1997.
Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.
Synonyms & Citations :
Description : Small to medium tree, up to 25 m; twigs to 10 mm in diam., usually rounded, glabrous or furfurescent, sometimes glaucous. Stipules triangular, 8–10 by 4–6 mm, drying blackish-brown, papery, furfuraceous, sometimes recurved, soon caducous, apex acute. Leaves: petiole 6–18 cm long, slender to 3 mm in diam., rounded, smooth, glabrous, not kneed; blades ovate, 10–22 by 9–20 cm, papery, base broadly rounded, strongly 2–4 cm peltate, nearly always with a few conspicuous elongate glands on main nerves midway between the petiole insertion and the basal leaf margin, margin entire, apex acute to broadly acuminate, surfaces occasionally glaucous and glabrous, but usually finely pubescent when young and becoming glabrous except often for a few hairs on main nerves, sometimes remaining velvety below with a few to mostly tufted, white hairs, secondary nerves palmate, numerous arising from petiole insertion. Staminate inflorescences racemes or occasionally panicles, 6–12 cm long, branches usually strongly zigzag at the distant flower clusters, these subtended by conspicuous spreading, spoon-like, caducous, glabrous bracteoles with flattened 1–2 mm long stalk and 1 (sometimes 2) big conspicuous subapical round, 2–3 mm in diam. nectaries. Staminate flowers in clusters of 5–8; sepals free; stamens 5–7, 4-locular. Pistillate inflorescences as staminate ones but branches not zigzag. Fruits 1(–3) per cluster 1–2-locular, round, to 4 mm, thinly woody, drying black granular-glandular, becoming smooth; pedicel 5–10 mm; calyx persistent; stigma short, thread like, eccentric, caducous, sometimes a few or most fruits deeply bilobed with twin apical styles.
Thailand : NORTHERN: Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lamphun, Tak, Phitsanulok; NORTH-EASTERN: Phetchabun; EASTERN: Chaiyaphum, Nakhon Ratchasima; SOUTH-WESTERN: Phetchaburi, Uthai Thani.
Distribution : Sri Lanka, India (type), Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, China.
Ecology : Lowlands to mountains, at 2,100 m alt.
Notes: A variable species. The staminate inflorescence structure and the bizarre spoon-like bracteoles are highly distinctive. Northern collections are usually almost glabrous and have glaucous twigs and sometimes leaves, southern forms possess leaves that are velvety below, sometimes (nearly always in Malay Peninsula) with bilocular fruits and sometimes with delicate inflorescences. These variants are not discrete and do not warrant taxonomic status.