Aglaia heterotricha A.C.Sm.
-
Authority
Smith, Albert C. 1952. Studies of Pacific Island plants, X. The Meliaceae of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 30: 469-522.
-
Family
Meliaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Type
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 1527045, collected on the plateau on Elsa Island, Tonga, in June or July 1920, by H. E. Parks (No. 16305). Duplicates at Bish, BM, K.
-
Description
Latin Diagnosis - Arbor A. saltatorum supra descriptae affinis, foliorum foliolis inferioribus magnitudine hand reductis, indumento ramulorum juvenilium et foliorum rhachi et foliolorum costa lepidoto (indumento alibi stellato-piloso), filamentorum tubo extus stellato-piloso differt.
Description - Tree, the branchlets terete, slender; indument of young branchlets, petioles, leaf-rachises, and costa of leaflets on lower surface lepidote, the scales membranaceous, 0.1-0.15 mm. in diameter, composed of 40-50 adnate rays free only at the erosulous scale-margin leaves 7- foliolate (always?), up to 55 cm. long, the petiole 15-20 cm. longr, conspicuously swollen at base, subterete like radius; leaflets opposite, the petiolules 7-17 mm. long (of terminal leaflet to 20 mm. long), the blades papyraceous, greenish olivaceous when dried, elliptic (terminal ones slightly obovate), 15-25 cm. long, 7-10 cm. broad (lower ones on distal leaves sometimes smaller), obtuse or acute at base, apparently obtuse or obtusely cuspidate at apex, punctate on both surfaces and usually with a few persistent scattered trichoines beneath (these with 30-40 rays free nearly to middle), the costa nearly plane or slightly raised above, prominent beneath, the secondary nerves usually 12-.15 per side, subspreading, slightly curved, nearly plane above, raised beneath, the veinlets often prominulous beneath, immersed above; inflorescences axillary, paniculate, freely branched (apparently from near base), many-flowered, the indument (on branches, pedicels, and calyx) stellate, the hairs with 30-40 rays free in the distal half; bracts and bracteoles minute; pedicels slender, at anthesis about 0.4 mm. in diameter and 0.5-1 mm. long; calyx subs membranaceous, rotate, about 1.5 mm. in diameter, deeply 5-lobed, the stellate hairs toward the margins with only 10-15 rays free nearly to base, the lobes oblong, 0.5-0.7 mm. long, subacute; petals 5, thin-carnose, imbricate, oblong, 1.5-1.8 mm. long, 0.8-1.3 mm. broad, sub-acute, stellate-pilose without except at margins (hairs about 0.1 mm. in diameter, with 10-20 rays free in distal half) androecium urceolate, about 1.2 nun. long and 1.5 mm. in diameter, the filaments firmly connate into a tube, this closely but copiously pilose without (hairs minute, with 10-20 rays free nearly to base) , the anthers inserted within the tube, oblong, about 0.5 mm. long; ovary minute, pilose like petals.
-
Discussion
The single collection here described is closely related only to A. saltatorum, differing in its pilose filament-tube, the scarcely reduced lower leaflets of its leaves, and the diversity of its indument. In A. saltatorum the indument is uniformly stellate-pilose, the rays of the hairs being free nearly to the base. This is the type of hair which occurs on the inflorescences and on the leaf-surfaces of A.heterotricha, but on the branchlets, leaf-rachises, and costal this species has a kph dote indument not unlike that of A. samoensis. Because of the presence of scales, the new species is also placed in the first part of my key, but it seems more closely related to A. saltatorum than to such species as A. samoensis and A. axillaris. Aglaia saltatorum, although occurring on Vavau and Tongtabu, has not yet been col-lected on Eua Island.