Volume 13 > Part 1 > Year 2015 > Page 44 > Salicaceae > Homalium

7. Homalium grandiflorum Benth.wfo-0000926266

J. Proc. Linn. Soc., Bot. 4: 37. 1859; Craib, Fl. Siam. 1: 741. 1931; Sleumer, Fl. Males., Ser. I, Spermat. 5: 62. 1954; Lescot, Fl. Cambodge, Laos & Vietnam 11: 91. 1970; Sleumer, Blumea 30: 225. 1985.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Tree to 30 m; branchlets glabrous. Stipules lanceolate, to 3 mm long. Leaves with petiole to 1.5 cm; blade elliptic to ovate, to 22 by 9 cm, base cuneate to rounded, apex acute to acuminate, glabrous. Inflorescence main axis to 22 cm long, indumentum of sparse or dense, mostly short, appressed to ascending hairs; bracts on main axis relatively persistent, elliptic to broadly ovate, to 3 mm long; each bract subtending a branch 0–10 mm long, with a pair of ovate bracts where the flower is articulated at the apex of the branch; these bracts ca half the size of the bract at the base of the branch. Flowers sessile, 8–10-merous. Calyx tube to 3 mm long, dense indumentum of long and short hairs; sepals narrowly elliptic or narrowly obovate, always longer than petals, accrescent in fruit, to 1.5 cm long; dense, appressed to ascending, long and short hairs on both surfaces. Petals ovate, accrescent in fruit, to 8 mm long and enclosing capsule, hairs as on sepals. Disc glands with dense, mostly short hairs. Stamens to 6 mm long, up to 9 per petal, most of them on the lower part of the petal, 1–3 between the glands or at base of ovary; filaments with long spreading hairs; Ovary with long ascending hairs on outside, inside also with long hairs; styles 5–7, erect, to 2 mm long.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Lamphun, Lampang, Phrae, Phitsanulok, Nakhon Sawan; NORTH-EASTERN: Phetchabun; EASTERN: Chaiyaphum; SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi; CENTRAL: Saraburi; SOUTH-EASTERN: Chanthaburi, Trat.

Distribution : Indochina, Lower Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia (type), Indonesia.

Ecology : In evergreen and deciduous forests, also in dry dipterocarp forests, locally common, at low altitudes.

Vernacular : Kai (ไก๊)(Lampang); krai (ไกร)(Uttaradit); cha khian phueak (จะเคียนเผือก)(Northern); chumsaeng (ชุมแสง)(Sukhothai, Udon Thani); chumsaeng dong (ชุมแสงดง), chumsaeng daeng (ชุมแสงแดง)(Sukhothai); ta khian phueak (ตะเคียนเผือก)(Northern); taeng sang (แตงซั่ง)(Lampang); phikun pa (พิกุลป่า)(Central); mak duk (หมากดูก)(Kanchanaburi); op (โอบ)(Saraburi).

Notes: See notes under Homalium dictyoneurum for comparison with that species.

In her description of Homalium glabrifolium Geddes (1928) said it differed from H. grandiflorum by ‘the smaller leaves which have more numerous nerves prominent on the lower surface and by the smaller sessile flowers’. All of these characteristics vary considerably over the range of H. grandiflorum, and H. glabrifolium is thus synonymised, although not confidently. Homalium glabrifolium is only known from the type, and future collections may prove that it is indeed a good species.