Melientha suavis
| Melientha suavis | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Melientha | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Melientha suavis | ||||||||||||
| Pierre |
Melientha suavis is a tree in the Opiliaceae family from more northern Southeast Asia . It is the only species in the genus Melienthia .
description
Melientha suavis grows as an evergreen tree up to about 13 meters high. The trunk diameter reaches up to 45 centimeters. The smooth bark is grayish.
The simple and alternate, thin-leather, short-stalked leaves are bare. They are ovate to obovate or elliptical, lanceolate, entire, rounded to rounded or pointed, up to 12-15 centimeters long and up to 5-7 centimeters wide. The stipules are missing.
Melientha suavis is dioecious diocesan . Almost bare and paniculate , about 15-20 centimeters long inflorescences are formed, they appear in groups, cauliflower on the trunk, or individually, ramiflora on the branches and axillary on the branch ends. The flowers are usually individually or in small groups on a minimal bract on the rhachis. The greenish, very small and 4–5-fold, unisexual, almost sessile to sessile, strongly scented flowers have a single (or double; with minimal "calyculs") flower envelope . The egg-shaped, pointed tepals (petals) are long and sweeping in the male flowers only to 1.5 millimeters, into the female on the ovary adherent. There are 4–5 very short, almost sessile stamens with relatively large anthers. The spherical, single-chamber ovary is on top with a seated, wide stigma . There is a lobed discus each. The female flowers have minimal staminodes, the male flowers have a reduced pistillode.
2.3-4 centimeters in size and yellow, ellipsoidal to egg-shaped, single-seeded, thin-fleshed stone fruits are formed.
Systematics and distribution
One can distinguish between two subspecies:
- Melientha suavis subsp. macrocarpa Hiepko : It occurs in northern Borneo.
- Melientha suavis subsp. suavis : It occurs in Cambodia , Laos , Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia and in Mindanao .
use
The juicy fruits are edible.
The young leaves and inflorescences are cooked and used as vegetables. However, the identification of the young leaves can be difficult without flowers and fruits. B. Urobotrya siamensis whose fruits are red, can be fatal. This happens quite often.
literature
- Flora Malesiana. Ser. 1, Vol. 10, Part 1, 1984, p. 38 ff. Online at biodiversitylibrary.org.
- J. Kuijt, B. Hansen: The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. XII: Flowering Plants Eudicots , Springer, 2015, ISBN 978-3-319-09295-9 , pp. 11 f, 140.
Web links
- Melientha suavis at Useful Tropical Plants.
- Melientha suavis at PROTA.
- Melientha suavis at The Parasitic Plant Connection (pictures).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Melientha. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved May 6, 2020.