Compilation
Maprounea membranacea

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Name

Identification
Maprounea membranacea Pax & K. Hoffmann [family EUPHORBIACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by 184277, 1912 Maprounea membranacea Pax & K. Hoffmann [family EUPHORBIACEAE ] Verified by H.-J. Esser, 2000 Maprounea africana Müll. Arg. [family EUPHORBIACEAE ] Verified by Not on Sheet,
Related name
  • Maprounea membranacea
  • Maprounea africana
  • Maproundea africana
Common name
  • isán-ahismwẹ = faeces of birds (Elugbe) (NIGERIA, EDO), Burkill, H.M. 1985. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 2

Flora

Entry for MAPROUNEA membranacea Pax & K. Hoffm. [family EUPHORBIACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical Africa, Vol 6, Part 1, page 441, (1913) Author: (By J. G. Baker, with additions by C. H. Wright.)
Names
MAPROUNEA membranacea Pax & K. Hoffm. [family EUPHORBIACEAE], in Engl. Pflanzenr. Euphorb.-Hippoman. 178.
MAPROUNEA africana Pax ex Durand & De Wild. [family EUPHORBIACEAE], Contrib. Fl. Congo, i. 52; De Wild. & Durand, Reliq. Dewevr. 213; De Wild. Études Fl. Baset Moyen-Congo, i. 279, wholly, and ii. 289, partly (Moanda and Eala specimens only) Th. & Hél. Durand, Syll. Fl. Congol. 499, partly: not of Müll. Arg.
MAPROUNEA bridelioides Pierre [family EUPHORBIACEAE], MSS.
Information
A tree up to 50 ft. high, all parts glabrous; ultimate twigs passing into the inflorescence 1–1 1/2 in. long. Leaves short-petioled, thinly membranous, with age becoming firmly papery, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, bluntly acuminate, base cuneate or somewhat rounded, margin entire, 1 1/2–3 in. long, 3/4–1 1/4 in. wide, finely nerved and reticulate; petiole slender, 1/3 in. long; stipules small, triangular. Inflorescence usually 1-sexual, diœcious or monœcious, occasionally androgynous. Male spikes globose or subglobose, 1/5 in. long, dense-flowered, with usually only a few empty basal female bracts; male bracts 2-glandular at the base, wide-triangular, acute, each 3–5-flowered; bracts and flowers red. Female racemes few-flowered, occasionally, even when 1-sexual, accompanied by a much-reduced abortive male spike; pedicels in fruit up to 3/4 in. long. Male calyx thinly membranous, 2–3-lobed, very small. Stamens 2, exserted. Ovary ovoid. Capsule red, globose, about 1/5 in. across. Seeds black, ovoid, irregularly rugulose, 1/6 in. long; caruncle vermilion, as large as the body of the seed.
Distribution
Spanish Guinea Lower Guinea Bebao, Tessmann, 670!Gaboon Lower Guinea Libreville, Klaine, 108! 148! 332! 584! 6430!Congo Lower Guinea Modgaka, Thollon, 37! Kitobi, Lecomte, B 65! Brazzaville, Chevalier, 5008!Congo Lower Guinea Banana; Moanda, Gillet, 4070! Stanley Pool district; near Leopoldville, Gillet!Congo South Central Equatorial Prov.; Eala, Pynaert, 1261! 1327! Seret, 820! Bangala district; Bangala, Dewèvre, 877!Cameroons Upper Guinea Batanga, Dinklage, 1425! Bipinde, Zenker, 2086! 2412! 2557! 3003! 3436!
Notes
A very distinct species whose features have been well elucidated by its authors, and also by Pierre, who has issued an excellent series of analytical drawings, but whose unpublished name has unfortunately not been taken up. Pax and Hoffmann think the species is perhaps more nearly allied to the American than to the other African forms; Pierre has considered it equally distinct from both, and has suggested that it may be treated as the type of a distinct section which he has named Sphærandra. It is to be d that in the Cameroons and in Spanish Guinea the spikes appear, as Pax and Hoffmann state, to be always 1-sexual and the plants to be usually diœcious. In the Gaboon, however, and in the Banana district of the Belgian Congo, while the spikes appear to be usually 1-sexual, the plants are usually monœcious. In the French Congo, on the other hand, and in the Belgian Congo from Stanley Pool eastwards, it is unusual to find a specimen without some androgynous spikes.

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