Volume 10 > Part 2 > Year 2010 > Page 170 > Celastraceae > Gymnosporia

4. Gymnosporia mekongensis Pierrewfo-0000712989

Fl. Forest. Cochinch.: t. 303A. 1893; Pit. in Lecomte, Fl. Indo-Chine 1: 884, fig. 111/7–12, 1912; Craib, Fl. Siam. Enum. 1: 285. 1926; P.H.Hô, Câyco Viêtnam (Ill. Fl. Vietnam) II, 1: 186, fig. 4149. 1992. Plate XXVII: 2.

Accepted Name : Gymnosporia diversifolia Maxim.
Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg, sér. 3, 27: 459. 1882.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Shrubs, up to 3 m tall; short shoots usually with terminal spines, rarely also a few axillary ones, puberulous, glabrescent or glabrous. Leaves fasciculate on short shoots, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, usually obovate, oblanceolate or broad-obovate, 2–6 by 1–3 cm, base attenuate, apex obtuse, rounded, sometimes emarginated, margin shallowly crenulate; surface usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely puberulous on undersurface; nerves 6–8 per side; petiole short, to 4 mm long, sparsely puberulous or glabrous. Inflorescences cymose, axillary, simple or fascicled in the leaf axil, sometimes crowded at apical parts of short shoots, to ca 4.5 cm long, sparsely puberulous or glabrous; main peduncle to ca 10 mm long, pedicels to ca 5 mm long. Flowers white or greenish white. Calyx lobes ca 2 mm long, erose. Petals oblong or elliptic, 2-2.5 by 1-1.5 mm, obtuse, entire. Disk fleshy, discoid. Stamens 1–2 mm long, short and abortive in female flowers. Ovary semi-immersed, usually 2-loculed, occasionally 3-loculed in a few flowers; style short; stigmas 2, pistillode in male flowers flask-like, rather short, ca 1 mm long. Fruits broadly obovoid, 6–8 by ca 6 mm. Seeds ellipsoid or obovoid, 3–5 by 1.5–2 mm, aril attached at the base, 1.5–2 mm long.

Thailand : SOUTH-WESTERN: Ratchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan (Sam Roi Yot); CENTRAL: Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok), Samut Sakhon (Ban Khlong Su); SOUTH EASTERN: Chon Buri (near Si Racha).

Distribution : Laos, Vietnam (type), Malaysia, Indonesia.

Ecology : In marsh or dry thicket, along the beaches or river, limestone range near sea, at low altitudes. Flowering: January, July; fruiting: February, May, December.

Vernacular : Nam daeng (หนามแดง)(Bangkok); nam kan chang (หนามก้านช้าง)(Nakhon Phanom).