密花红光树 mi hua hong guang shu

Myristica conferta King var. tonkinensis Warburg, Monogr. Myristic. 581. 1897.

Trees to 12 m tall, to 25 cm d.b.h.; branches spreading and slightly drooping; juvenile branches cylindrical, with hairs ca. 0.3 mm, glabrescent, then bark grayish brown, longitudinally striate. Petiole 1.2-1.5 cm, pubescent, glabrescent; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, 13-24 × 4-6.5 cm, papery to nearly leathery, abaxially grayish white, with grayish brown stellate-dendroid pubescence, glabrescent with age, base broadly cuneate to nearly rounded, margins nearly parallel, apex acute or shortly acuminate; lateral veins 18-25 pairs. Male inflorescences 1-6 mm, stalked, 2-10-flowered. Male flowers: pedicel 6-10 mm; bracteole at about middle; perianth in bud obovoid, ca. 5.5 × 3.5 mm, lobes 3 or 4; staminal disk circular or subtriangular, ± flat; anthers ca. 10. Female flowers not known. Fruiting pedicel 3-6 mm. Fruits 1-3, on 3-4 mm peduncle, ellipsoid or obovoid, 2.5-4 × 2-2.8 cm, with rusty pubescence, hairs 1-2 mm, late glabrescent; perianth ± persistent; pericarp ca. 2 mm thick when dry. Aril open at apex. Fl. Dec-Feb, fr. May-Jun.

Moist bamboo groves, slopes, ravines; 1100-1200 m. Yunnan (Cangyuan) [Laos, Vietnam].

In FRPS (30(2): 185. 1979), this species was misidentified as Knema conferta (King) Warburg (Myristica conferta King). True K. conferta is distributed in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Knema tonkinensis, as here conceived, may include specimens of K. petelotii Merrill (described from Tonkin, Vietnam); the latter species was regarded as distinct by de Wilde (Blumea 25: 375-377. 1979).