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81. Saprosma Blume, Bijdr. 956. 1826.

染木树属 ran mu shu shu

Authors: Tao Chen & Charlotte M. Taylor

Erect shrubs, unarmed, usually fetid when bruised. Raphides present. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3 or 4, sometimes with domatia; stipules caducous or persistent, interpetiolar, triangular, entire or 1-3-setose or multifid. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, fasciculate or cymose and several flowered or reduced to 1 flower, pedunculate to sessile, bracteate with bracts usually fused in pairs. Flowers sessile or pedicellate, bisexual, apparently monomorphic. Calyx limb 4-6-lobed, sometimes funnelform, lobes sometimes unequal. Corolla white, campanulate, tubular, or funnelform, inside villous in throat; lobes 4(-6), valvate-induplicate in bud, with margins sometimes crisped. Stamens 4(-6), inserted in corolla throat, usually partially exserted; filaments short or reduced; anthers dorsifixed near base. Ovary 2-celled, ovules 1 in each cell, basal, erect; style 2-lobed, included or exserted. Fruit blue or purplish black, drupaceous, fleshy, ellipsoid, with calyx limb persistent; pyrenes 1 or 2, 1-celled, with 1 seed, crustaceous to papery; seeds medium-sized, plano-convex, subobovoid, or ellipsoid, abaxially (i.e., dorsally) smooth to verrucose, endosperm fleshy; cotyledon tiny, leaflike; radicle slender, close to hilum.

About 30 species: tropical Asia; five species (four endemic) in China.

Saprosma is not well known. Analyses of relationships among Lasianthus and related genera support the transfer of S. crassipes into that genus, although the authors did not publish a formal nomenclatural transfer (Xiao & Zhu, Bot. Stud. (Taipei) 48: 227-232. 2007).


1 Flowers sessile in sessile glomerules or heads   (2)
+ Flowers sessile to pedicellate in pedunculate and/or branched inflorescences   (3)
       
2 (1) Flowers mostly in terminal heads, sometimes also borne in uppermost leaf axils; petioles 1-3 mm.   2 S. hainanensis
+ Flowers in glomerules borne along much of length of stem, sometimes also in a terminal head; petioles 10-12 mm.   4 S. merrillii
       
3 (1) Flowers on pedicels 2-10 mm, in branched cymes borne on peduncles 10-40 mm; leaves opposite or more often ternate; pyrenes smooth abaxially.   5 S. ternata
+ Flowers sessile in heads, borne on peduncles 5-20 mm; leaves opposite; pyrenes verrucose abaxially   (4)
       
4 (3) Peduncles 5-8 mm; secondary leaf veins 7-10 pairs; corolla tube 7-8 mm.   1 S. crassipes
+ Peduncles 10-20 mm; secondary leaf veins 4-6 pairs; corolla tube ca. 10 mm.   3 S. henryi

Lower Taxa


 

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