Aglaia wallichii Hiern

Joyce, E. M., Crayn, D. M., Rossetto, M., Yap, J. Y. S., Thiele, K. R. & Pannell, C. M., 2023, Taxonomic recircumscriptions in the Aglaia elaeagnoidea complex (Meliaceae), Blumea 68 (1), pp. 26-38 : 36-37

3. Aglaia wallichii Hiern — Fig. 7

Aglaia wallichii Hiern (1875) 555;C.DC (1878) 606. — Lectotype (designated by Pannell 1992): Anonymous in Herbarium East India Company 8036 (lecto K-W; isolecto BM, FI, K), Bangladesh, Sylhet [Silhet].

Aglaia roxburghiana ( Wight & Arn.) Miq. var. angustata Miq. (1868) 42. — Lectotype (designated by Pannell 1992): Teysmann s.n. (lecto U barcode U0004212 ; isolecto BO, L, U barcode U0004213 ), Java, Japura Province , Pulau Kellor.

Aglaia roxburghiana ( Wight & Arn.) Miq.var. balica Miq.(1868) 42. — Lectotype (designated by Pannell 1992): Anonymous s.n. (lecto U; isolecto L), Bali.

Aglaia wallichii Hiern var. brachystachya C.DC (1878) 606. — Type: Griffith 1045 (holo K).

Aglaia hoanensis Pierre (1895) ante t. 336. — Lectotype (designated by Pannell 1992): Pierre 2779 (lecto P; isolecto BM, K), S. Vietnam, Bien Hoa province, Sept. 1869.

Aglaia poulocondorensis Pellegr. (1910) 290. — Amoora poulocondorensis (Pellegr.) Harms (1940) 128, 176. — Lectotype (designated by Pannell 1992): Harmand 748 (lecto P), S. Vietnam, Iles de Poulo-Condor.

Aglaia poilanei Pellegr. (1944) 179. — Type: Poilane 16713 (holo P), Vietnam, Annam, Bu Khang , Province de Vinh.

Aglaia abbreviata C.Y. Wu (1977) 240. — Type: P.I. Mao 3262 (holo KUN), China, Yunnan, Pingbian .

Aglaia roxburghiana auct. non (( Wight & Arn.) Miq.: Kurz (1875) 147; Miq. (1868) 41, p.p.; C.DC. (1878) 604, p.p.; Koord. & Valeton (1913) t. 161.

Aglaia elaeagnoidea auct.non (A.Juss.) Benth.:Backer & Bakh.f.(1965);128; Pannell (1992) 148, f. 34 & 35 p. p.; (1995a) 243, p.p.; H. Peng & Pannell (2008) 123; Pannell (2013a) 78, f. 5; S. Gardner et al. (2016) 1231,f. 1612.

Small trees or shrubs, 5–12(–20) m tall, fluted at the base, sometimes with small buttresses. Bark brown, greyish brown, reddish brown or yellowish grey, with narrow vertical fissures, flaking in thin, irregular, stiff, scroll-like scales; inner bark pink or reddish brown; sapwood white or yellow; heartwood red. Twigs grey or pale brown, densely covered with very pale brown or pale orange-brown peltate scales with entire or shortly fimbriate margins. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, 6–22 by 12–24 cm; peti- ole 2.5–5.5 cm long. Leaflets (3–)5–7, subcoriaceous; lamina elliptical, sometimes obovate, (1–)2–10(–13) by 1–3.5(–4) cm, usually at least twice as long as wide, base cuneate, apex acuminate with an acumen 10(–20) mm long, the lower sur- face densely covered with scales (like those on the twigs) on the midrib and sparsely so elsewhere, with numerous faint or conspicuous pits on both surfaces; lateral veins 5–11 on each side of the midrib, prominent below; lateral veins subprominent on both surfaces; intercostal venation usually subprominent on both surfaces; petiolules 0.5–2 cm long. Flowers 1.25–2 by 1.25–3 mm wide, subglobose or depressed-globose. Calyx shallowly divided into 5 broadly ovate obtuse lobes, densely covered on the outside with orange-brown peltate scales with long-fimbriate margins. Petals usually 5, free, quincuncial, yellow, without scales on the exposed outer surface (except in coastal specimens from Java and adjacent islands with very pale brown peltate scales). Staminal tube depressed-globose or ovoid, c. 1 by 1–1.4 mm, with an aperture c. 0.5 mm diam; anthers 5, ovoid, 0.3–0.5 by 0.25–0.4 mm, inserted half way up the tube and just protruding through the aperture. Fruits subglobose, ellipsoid or obovoid when young, subglobose when ripe, 1.1–2.5 by 1.3–2.0 cm, indehiscent; pericarp pale yellow, orange or brown, thin and brittle when dry, densely covered on the outside with orange-brown peltate scales with long-fimbriate margins; locules 2, each with 0 or 1 seed. Seeds completely covered with a thin, white, gelatinous, sweet aril.

Distribution — Widespread in Myanmar, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Java and Bali (and therefore confined to the west of Wallace’s Line). Histori- cally in Bangladesh (including the type locality), though now considered extinct there.

Habitat & Ecology — Aglaia wallichii is usually found inland, at elevations to 1400 m, in dry evergreen or deciduous forest, including on limestone and granite. In Java and its offshore islands, however, it occurs on the coast, where it resembles A. elaeagnoidea in morphology. Primates remove the pericarp and consume the seeds. They digest the gelatinous aril that adheres firmly to the seed and either spit out the cleaned seeds or void them in their faeces.

Note — The twigs,petioles,rachises,petiolules,inflorescence and infructescence peduncles, branches and pedicels of A. roxburghiana and A. wallichii are more slender than those in A. elaeagnoidea . The leaflets of A. roxburghiana and A. wallichii are mostly more than twice as long as wide. The indumentum is sparse on the leaflets of A. roxburghiana and A. wallichii and the pits on the leaflet surfaces are less conspicuous than in A. elaeagnoidea (except in coastal specimens from Java and adjacent islands, where the indumentum structure and distribution on the leaves and flowers resembles A. elaeagnoidea ). Coastal specimens of A. wallichii sometimes resemble A. elaeagnoidea in having leaves with short, broad, rounded apices, rather than having a drip tip, and an indumentum on the exposed surfaces of the petals. Leaflets in A. wallichii are less coriaceous than in A. elaeagnoidea , and the reticulation is more visible (except in coastal specimens from Java and adjacent islands).

Acknowledgements We thank Deby Arifiani, Charles Davis, Michaela Schmull,Anthony Brach, Gillian Brown, Frank Zich, Sarah Hirst, Ian Cowie, Donna Lewis, Stephen Harris, Martin Cheek, Elizabeth Woodgyer, Machiel Visser, Peter van Welzen, Skye Coffey, Karina Knight, Jana Skornickova, Bazilah Mohd Ibrahim, Serena Lee, Barbara Thiers, Matthew Pace , Chris- topher Dick, Richard Rabeler and Meghann Toner for facilitating sampling from their respective herbaria. We also thank Wendy Cooper and Ryonen Butcher for facilitating previous work on the A. elaeagnoidea complex, Srini- vasan Kasinathan, Divya Mudappa, TR Shankar Raman and HS Sushma for a field visit in the Anamalai Hills in the Western Ghats of India and Tan Junhong in Xishuangbanna, China and Ruth Kiew in Peninsular Malaysia.We appreciate the assistance of Melissa Harrison and Lalita Simpson with laboratory work. Discussions with Alexandra Muellner-Riehl and Jan Schnitzler were constructive in the development of this project, and we thank them for their input. We also thank Bangladesh National Herbarium, Wolfgang Dittus, Warren Brockelman, Siddarth Machado, and Arun Singh-Ramesh for sharing their local ecological knowledge. This work was supported by an Australasian Systematic Botany Society Hansjörg Eichler Research Fund Grant,a Wet Tropics Management Authority Student Research Grant,and by funding for EMJ from the Australian Government and the Prinzessin Therese von Bayern Foundation.

Figures

Fig. 7 Aglaia wallichii Hiern. a. Branch with inflorescence, with arrow indicating leaf lower surface; b. mature fruit; c. peltate scale; d. stellate scale; e. peltate scale with fimbriate margin (a, c–e: Murata et al. T-37072; b: Petrmitr 516, all A). — Illustration by E.M. Joyce.