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Ellipanthus madagascariensis

Description

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Family Connaraceae

Trees small, shrubs , or vines , erect or scandent , evergreen or deciduous. Leaves alternate, exstipulate , petiolate ; leaf blade odd-pinnate, 3-foliolate, or 1-foliolate; leaflets subopposite or alternate, usually leathery, margin entire, rarely lobulate . Inflorescences terminal , pseudoterminal, or axillary , paniculate or racemose, bracteate . Flowers bisexual , rarely unisexual , actinomorphic , small. Sepals (4 or) 5, free or united at very base only, imbricate or valvate , persistent and clasping base of fruit. Petals (4 or) 5, free, rarely slightly connate at middle , imbricate or valvate, rarely circinate . Stamens 5–10, hypogynous or perigynous, in 2 whorls alternately longer and shorter, those opposite petals often shorter and abortive ; filaments free or shortly connate at base; anthers didymous , dorsifixed in proximal 1/2, introrse , short, dehiscing longitudinally. Disk thin or absent, surrounded by base of stamens. Carpels (1–) 5(–8), free, 1-celled, hirsute . Style subulate or filiform ; stigma subcapitate , simple or 2-lobed. Ovules 2 in each carpel (1 sometimes sterile ), collateral , erect. Fruit a usually solitary follicle, sessile or stipitate , dehiscing usually along adaxial suture, sometimes along abaxial one, very rarely circumscissile at base, sometimes indehiscent. Seed 1(or 2), erect, usually arillate , rarely exarillate ; testa thick; aril colored , fleshy ; endosperm present or absent; embryo straight; cotyledons thick and fleshy in exalbuminous seeds, thin in albuminous ones.

Between 12 and 24 genera and 180–390 species: mainly in Africa and tropical Asia, some species in the subtropics, only a few species in the New World; six genera and nine species (one endemic) in China.[1]

Genus Ellipanthus

Shrubs or small trees . Leaves 1-foliolate; petiole articulate ; leaf blade entire at margin . Inflorescences axillary , paniculate to glomerulate-racemose, small; bracts lanceolate, small, soon falling. Flowers bisexual (when protandrous) or unisexual (when plants dioecious), 4-or 5-merous. Sepals 4 or 5, valvate in bud, densely hairy abaxially, persistent but not enlarged after anthesis . Petals 4 or 5, free , imbricate in bud, longer than sepals. Stamens 2 × as many as petals, those opposite sepals well developed, those opposite petals much smaller and staminodal; filaments connate at base into a tube . Carpel 1, somewhat laterally inserted ; ovary obliquely ovoid , flattened, hairy; ovules 2, erect , collateral . Style slender, hairy; stigma disk-shaped to 2-lobed, large. Follicle yellowish to brownish when mature , ovoid, tomentose abaxially, slightly to strongly abaxially geniculate, basal part narrowed into a short to long stipe, fertile part dehiscing by a longitudinal slit, with persistent calyx; pericarp woody. Seed 1, ellipsoid , obtuse at both ends; testa mostly black and glossy, basal part covered with a yellowish to orange, thin aril; endosperm ca. 1 mm thick, hard.

Between seven and 13 species: mainly in SE Asia, also in tropical E Africa and Madagascar; one species (endemic) in China.[2]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Capuron in Keraudr. Publication : in Fl. Madag., Fam. 97, 2 (1958) Basionym author: (G.Schellenb.)

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Ellipanthus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 23 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

E. beccarii · E. beccari var. beccarii · E. burebidensis · E. calophyllus · E. cinereus · E. curtisii · E. gibbosus · E. glabrifolius (Ellipanthus) · E. griffithii · E. helferi · E. hemandradenioides · E. kingii · E. longifolius · E. luzoniensis (Ellipanthus) · E. madagascariensis · E. mindanaensis · E. monophyllus · E. neglectus · E. peltatus · E. sarawakensis · E. sterculiaefolius (Ellipanthus) · E. tomentosus (Ellipanthus) · E. vidalii (Ellipanthus)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 28, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Lingdi Lu & Nicholas J. Turland "Connaraceae". in Flora of China Vol. 9 Page 435. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Ellipanthus". in Flora of China Vol. 9 Page 439. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2009-07-03