Alectryon macrococcus
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Alectryon macrococcus is a tree in the subfamily Sapindoideae within the soap tree family that is endemic only to Hawaii . It is known here as Māhoe , but the species Alectryon macrococcus and Alectryon mahoe , which occur in Hawaii, are difficult to distinguish.
The species is also incorrectly listed as Alectryon macrococcum .
description
Alectryon macrococcus grows as a small, slow-growing and quite long-lived, often multi-stemmed tree up to about 9-11 meters high. The trunk diameter reaches about 20 centimeters. The bark is grayish to brownish and rough to coarsely scaly or flaky.
The longer stalked leaves are pinnate in pairs with 4 to 8 (10) leaflets . The slightly leathery, stiff-thick, short-stalked and entire-margined leaflets are up to 18 centimeters long and up to 10 centimeters wide. They are egg-shaped to lanceolate or elliptical, round-pointed to pointed and shiny on the top and on the underside, more or less dense, with yellowish-brown hairs. The yellowish veins are pinnate with slightly curved side veins.
Axillary, yellowish hairy and dense panicles with ribbed rachis and side branches are formed. The short-stalked, very small, brownish and (possibly hermaphrodite) flowers have a simple flower cover , the petals are missing. The unequal calyx lobes on the cup-shaped, hairy calyx are only 2 millimeters long. The Upper constant ovary with short style and zweilappiger, -part scar dense coat. The flowers have 6–8 very short stamens with reddish anthers and hairy stamens. There is a lobed discus each.
Simple to three-part, brown and bare, woody-leathery, slightly scabbed, about 3–7 centimeters large fruits with round single or partial fruits are formed. They tear up irregularly to maturity. The blackish, bony and round seeds are smooth, they are partially covered by a reddish and fleshy aril .
use
The fruits or the aril and the seeds are edible.
literature
- Joseph F. Rock : The indigenous trees of the Hawaiian Islands. 1913, pp. 274-278, online at biodiversitylibrary.org.
- Harold St. John, Lafayette Frederick: A Second Hawaiian Species of Alectryon (Sapindaceae): Hawaiian Plant Studies 17. 1949, online (PDF), from ScholarSpace at University of Hawaii at Manoa, accessed April 6, 2020.
- Recovery Plan for the Maui Plant Cluster (Hawaii). US Fish and Wildlife Service, 1997, pp. 12-18, limited preview in Google Book search.
Web links
- Alectryon macrococcus at Useful Tropical Plants.
- Alectryon at Botany Department of University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (pictures).