假广子 jia guang zi

Knema siamensis Warburg.

Trees to 20 m tall; bark grayish brown; branches spreading, slightly drooping; juvenile branches and juvenile leaves with dense rusty or grayish brown pubescence, hairs 0.2-0.5 mm, late glabrescent. Petiole 0.6-1.7 cm, pubescent; leaf blade papery to nearly leathery, oblong-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 12-25(-32) × 3-6(-8) cm, margins nearly parallel, apex acute or shortly acuminate, base broadly cuneate or nearly rounded, abaxially with dense rusty or grayish brown stalked stellate pubescence; midvein sunken adaxially, lateral veins 15-32(-36) pairs, prominent on both surfaces. Male inflorescences axillary or arising from axils of deciduous leaves, with 4-8 flowers; peduncles 3-4 mm, pubescent. Male flower buds 3-5 mm, obovoid or subglobose; pedicel 5-9 mm; bracteole inserted at middle (or higher) of pedicel; perianth lobes 3(or 4), with hairs 0.2-0.5 mm; staminate disk flat or ± concave; anthers 8-13. Female flowers 3-8(-10)-clustered; peduncle short, cylindrical, 3-4 mm, pubescent; ovary ovate, ca. 3 mm; style half as long as ovary; stigma bifid, each lobe again shallowly 2-lobulate. Infructescences of 1 or 2 fruits; fruiting pedicel 0.5-1 cm, pubescent with hairs ca. 1 mm, glabrescent. Fruit ovoid or ellipsoid, 2.5-3.2 × 1.8-2 cm; perianth sometimes persistent; pericarp ca. 1 mm thick. Seeds ovoid-ellipsoid, 2-2.8 × 1.3-1.6 cm; aril orange-red to deep red, completely entire or at apex slightly open. Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Apr-May.

Mountain slopes, low hills, ravines; 500-1700 m. Yunnan (Cangyuan, Jinghong, Luxi, Mengla, Ruili) [Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].

In FRPS (30(2): 182. 1979), this species was misidentified as Knema erratica (J. D. Hooker & Thomson) J. Sinclair (Myristica erratica J. D. Hooker & Thomson). True K. erratica is distributed in NE India.

The seeds contain ca. 20% fat, which is used in industry.