Compilation
Carapa obovata

6 Images see all

Previous
Next

Name

Identification
Carapa obovata Blume [family MELIACEAE ] Xylocarpus mekongensis Pierre [family MELIACEAE ] Verified by Noamesi, G.K., Xylocarpus microcarpa Ridl. [family MELIACEAE ] Xylocarpus granatum Koen. [family MELIACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Phengklai, C.,
Related name
  • Xylocarpus mekongensis
  • Carapa obovata
  • Xylocarpus granatum
  • Xylocarpus microcarpa

Flora

Entry for Xylocarpus granatum Koen. [family MELIACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Zambesiaca
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
FZ, Vol 2, Part 1, page 285, (1963) Author: F. White and B. T. Styles
Names
Xylocarpus granatum Koen. [family MELIACEAE], in Naturforsch. 20: 2 (1784). — A. Juss. in Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Par. 19: 244 (1830). — Parkinson in Indian Forester, 60: 138, t. 15 (1934). — Merr., Interpr. Rumph. Herb. Amboin.: 306 (1917). — Ridl. in Kew Bull. 1938: 288 (1938). — Burtt Davy in Journ. S. Afr. Bot. 6: 31 (1940). TAB 57 fig. A. Type from eastern Asia.
Carapa obovata BL [family MELIACEAE], Bijdr.: 179 (1825). — Baill. in Grandid. Hist. Nat. Pl. Madag. 3: t. 260 (1886). — Battiscombe, Trees, etc. Kenya Col., ed. 2: 103 (1936). Type from Java.
Carapa moluccensis [family MELIACEAE], sensu Oliv., F.T.A. 1: 337 (1868). — Sim, For. Fl. Port. E. Afr.: 27, t. 16 (1909).
Xylocarpus benadirensis Mattei [family MELIACEAE], in Boll. Ort. Bot. Palermo, 7: 99 (1908). — Ridl., loc. cit., descr. ampl. — Brenan, T.T.C.L.: 322 (1949). — Gomes e Sousa, Dendrol. Moçamb., 2: 103 cum tab. (1949). — Dale & Greenway, Kenya Trees and Shrubs: 276 (1961). Type from Somalia.
Xylocarpus obovatus Bl. A. Juss. [family MELIACEAE], loc, cit. — Chiovenda, Fl. Somala, 2: 131 (1932). Glover, Prov. Check-List Brit. & It. Somal.: 187 (1947). Type as above.
Information
Medium-sized crooked much-branched evergreen tree up to 10 m. tall (taller elsewhere); bark smooth and yellowish, or brown and green and flaking; surface roots laterally compressed and forming a spreading network of ribbon-like pneumatophores with the upper edges protruding above the mud and suggesting a mass of snakes. Leaves paripinnate, drying orange-brown; petiole and rhachis up to 8·5 cm. long, glabrous; leaflets up to 12 × 5 cm., usually much smaller, opposite, 1–2 (3)-jugate, elliptic, oblong-elliptic or obovate-elliptic, apex usually rounded, rarely obtuse or emarginate, base narrowly or broadly cuneate, glabrous, coriaceous, venation prominent on both sides; petiolules 2–5 mm. long. Flowers whitish or pale pink, in lax racemes of (2) 3-flowered cymes; peduncle plus rhachis 4–7 cm. long; bracts minute, usually caducous. Calyx about 3 mm. long, glabrous, lobed to the middle, lobes rounded. Petals 5–6·5 × 2·5 mm., glabrous. Staminal tube 4–5 mm. long, glabrous. Ovary less than 1 mm. in diam.; style 1·5 mm. long; disk fused to the lower half of the ovary. Fruit large, up to 20 cm. in diam., obscurely 4-sulcate. Seeds 4–8 cm. long.
Habitat
In tidal mud of mangrove swamps, especially towards their upper limits.
Range
throughout most of the Old World tropics to Australia, Fiji and Tonga.
Distribution
Mozambique N R. Tari, Cabo Delgado, fr. xi.1959, Gomes e Sousa 4523 (COI)Mozambique M R. Maputo, fl. xi.1948, Gomes e Sousa 3895 (COI; K; MO; PRE; SRGH).Mozambique MS Beira, fr. iv.1894, Kuntze (K).Mozambique Z Quelimane, Sim 21074 (PRE, not seen).
Distribution (external)
Somalia
Kenya
Tanganyika
Mafia
Pemba
Zanzibar
Madagascar
Notes
The ribbon-like roots are illustrated by Watson (in Malayan Forest Records, 6: t. 37 (1928)) and by Graham (in Journ, E. Afr. & Uganda Nat. Hist. Soc. 36: 157 (1929)).Ridley (loc. cit.) maintained the African plant, X. benadirensis, distinct from the Asiatic because of its dentate not retuse staminal appendages. This trifling character is too variable (even within the same flower) to be of taxonomic value. On Mafia I. a decoction of the crushed fruits is drunk as an aphrodisiac (Greenway 5373).

Related Materials