Diospyros sp. Millaa Millaa (L.W. Jessup 515)

Family

Ebenaceae

Botanical Name

Diospyros sp. Millaa Millaa (L.W. Jessup 515)

() : . Type: ?.

Common name

Ebony

Stem

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-2 m tall.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 7.5-16 x 3-5 cm. Lateral veins forming fairly definite loops inside the blade margin. Terminal buds and young shoots clothed in pinkish hairs.

Flowers

Floral bracts two, persistent. Calyx clothed in pink or yellowish hairs on the outer surface. Corolla clothed in pink hairs on the outer surface. Male flowers: Flowers about 4 mm long, stamens glabrous, attached to the base of the pistillode. Pistillode densely clothed in pink hairs. Female flowers: Flowers much longer than the male flowers. Ovary clothed in prostrate, pink, red or white hairs. Base of the ovary green. Ovules 2 per locule. Stigma green.

Fruit

Calyx lobes three, persistent at the base of the fruit. Fruit about 10 mm diam. Cotyledons much wider but only half the length of the radicle.

Seedlings

Cotyledons elliptic to ovate, obtuse at the base, about 17-25 x 12-14 mm, petiole short. Cataphylls often present above the cotyledons. First pair of true leaves obovate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade about 75 x 25 mm, glabrous on the upper surface, petiole about 3 mm long, channelled on the upper surface. Terminal buds and young shoots clothed in pinkish hairs.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 750 m. Grows as an understory shrub in undisturbed well developed lowland and upland rain forest.

NEQ

X

Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)

X

RFK Code

3260