Volume 14 > Part 2 > Year 2019 > Page 196 > Araliaceae > Aralia

8. Aralia thomsonii Seem. ex C.B.Clarkewfo-0000259604

in Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 2: 723. 1879; Harms, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 23: 18. 1896; King, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 67: 44. 1898; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 1: 873. 1922; Craib, Fl. Siam. 1: 794. 1931; H.L.Li, Sargentia 2: 112. 1942; G.Hoo & C.J.Tseng, Fl. Reipubl. Popul. Sin. 54: 158. 1978; J.Wen, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 38: 6. 2000; Frodin & J.Wen in Frodin & Govaerts, World Checkl. Bibliogr. Araliac.: 75. 2004 (‘2003’); J.Wen, Cathaya 15–16: 128, fig. 48. 2004; C.B. Shang & Lowry, Fl. China 13: 485. 2007; S.Gardner et al., Forest Trees S. Thailand 1: 229, fig. 316. 2015. Plate XVIII.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Shrub or small, often unbranched trees to 8 m tall; bark light brown, wood yellow-white; stem with 2–5 mm long, flattened prickles; indumentum dense on all parts or sparse to nearly absent, leaves always with hair-like bristles. Leaves: stipules ca 35 mm long, the tip a short free rim; petiole 50–80 cm long, with broad, clasping base; blade bi- or tri-pinnate, 0.7–3 m long; rachises with conspicuous, densely pubescent articulations; with a pair of leaflets or short pinnate leaves at each node of the rachis; prickles, if present, to 4 mm: leaflets ovate, to (4–)10–17 by (2–)5–8 cm, petiolules to 3(–10) mm long, base obtuse or rounded, oblique in lateral leaflets, margin indistinctly to distinctly simple-serrate, apex acute to acuminate, pubescence sparse to dense above and beneath, lower surface somewhat tomentose with dense, short, hair-like bristles, with denser, longer (to 1 mm) and velvety bristles on midrib, veins and tertiary venation both above and beneath, leaves drying pale glaucous green beneath and brown-reddish green above, side veins in 7–12 pairs. Inflorescence a large terminal panicle of umbels, to 75 cm long; branches subtended by triangular, 0.5–2 cm long bracts; umbels of terminal branches in fruit before the flowers of later formed unbels have opened; prickles, if present, usually confined to 1. and 2. order branches only; silky pubescent throughout; umbels 15–28-flowered, ca 12–25 mm in diam., floral bracts linear, to 3 mm long, pubescent. Flowers green, slightly constricted below receptacle; pedicel 2–7(–12) mm long; calyx glabrous, the free tips 0.3–0.5 mm long (to 1.2 mm in fruit); petals ca 2 by 1 mm; stamens 2.5–3 mm long, the filaments to 2 mm, anthers c.1 mm; styles appressed, to 0.6 mm long in bud, spreading, to 1.2 mm in fruit, stigma capitate, the apex being rounded and broader than the style; yellowish-green. Fruits green, 3–4 by 3–3.5 mm, the calyx lobes prominent and erect, the styles recurved and appressed to fruit, drying prominently 5-angled and purple-blackish.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Nan, Lamphun, Phrae, Kamphaeng Phet; NORTH-EASTERN: Loei; EASTERN: Nakhon Ratchasima; SOUTH-WESTERN: Phetchaburi; CENTRAL: Nakhon Nayok; PENINSULAR: Ranong, Pattani, Narathiwat.

Distribution : India (type), Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia, Indochina, China, also recorded from Nepal and Bhutan but not verified here.

Ecology : Mixed primary and secondary seasonal hardwood forests, often in disturbed places, clearings and roadsides, reported from granite, sandstone and phyllite bedrock, (400–)900–1,750 m alt. Flowering and fruiting: January–March, June–October.

Vernacular : So se (โสเส่), ple plo (ปลีโปล)(Chiang Mai); khan ham suea (คันหามเสือ)(Mae Hong Son).

Uses: Young leaves are edible. Stems are used for medicinal purposes.

Notes: Aralia montana Blume is a complex of species mainly varying in their degree of pubescence and spininess. The species concept of Philipson (1979) is probably too inclusive. Within this complex, A. thomsonii stands out by its less distinctly serrate leaf margin and the short and dense pubescence. The dried leaves are pale, grey-green beneath and brownish green above.