Alangium vitiense (A.Gray) Baill.

de Wilde, W. J. J. O. & Duyfjes, B. E. E., 2017, The species of Alangium section Rhytidandra (Alangiaceae), Blumea 62 (1), pp. 75-83 : 82

12. Alangium vitiense (A.Gray) Baill.

Alangium vitiense (A.Gray) Baill. (1864) 195. ― Alangium villosum (Blume) Wangerin subsp. vitiense (A.Gray) Bloemb.(1939) 208,f. 6i, 7r–s. ― Rhytidandra vitiensis A. Gray (1854) 303, t. 28. ― Lectotype here designated: Unknown s.n. ( US US 00127567;iso US US 00127568), Fiji Isl. (‘Feejee’).

Alangium bussyanum (Baill.) Harms (1898) 262. ― Alangium villosum (Blume) Wangerin subsp. bussyanum (Baill.) Bloemb.(1939) 207,f. 6h, 7q. ― Marlea bussyana Baill.(1872) 183. ― Type: Pancher s.n. (holo P P00522317), New Caledonia fl.

(Shrub or) tree, 3–20 m tall; twigs usually blackish, sometimes conspicuously lenticellate, (1–) 2–4 mm diam, glabrous (early glabrescent from grey appressed hairs 0.1 mm long or less). Leaves: petiole (0.5–) 1–1.5 cm long, glabrous; lamina drying blackish or brown, membranous or subcoriaceous, ovate-elliptic, 8–16 by 3.5–9 cm, base strongly asymmetric, (broadly) rounded or cuneate, apex acute-acuminate; veins pinnate, 5–7 on each side, tertiary venation finely or coarsely (sub)scalariform. Inflorescences glabrous, solitary peduncled compound cymes, (2–)5–10-flowered; peduncle 5–25(–40) mm long. Flowers densely minutely grey-hairy; pedicel 2–7 mm long; corolla in bud 7–8 mm long, base not swollen, apex (sub)obtuse; ovary and calyx 2–3.5 mm long, not ribbed; limb spreading, 1–1.5 mm long, 2–3(–4) mm wide at margin, shallowly lobed, lobes c. 0.5 mm long; petals 4–6, inside glabrous or sparingly hairy, 7–9 mm long, connate at base for c. 1 mm; stamens 5, at base slightly adnate to petals, 8‒10 mm long, filament 3‒4 mm long, hairy in the middle, anthers 5‒6 mm long, connective glabrous; style 5–7 mm long, glabrous or sparingly hairy ( New Caledonia), stigma lobes c. 1.5 mm long. Fruit (1–)2–7 per infructescence, ripening purple to black, glabrous, ovoid-ellipsoid, 17–22 by 8–11 mm, smooth; calyx remnant cup-shaped, ± spreading, c. 2 mm wide at apex.

Distribution ― Fiji Isl., Vanuatu, New Caledonia.

Habitat & Ecology ― Lowland rain forest, scrub-land, coralline terrace ( New Caledonia); brown-red soil; 100–700 m altitude; flowering from March to August; fruiting from March to December.

Field-notes ― Chew Wee­Lek RSNM 60: ‘Very common as ‘poles’ in Kauri forest’ ( Vanuatu); fruit becoming purple to black.

Note ― Specimens from New Caledonia generally have been collected from shrubs and have smaller, somewhat less unequal laminas and shorter peduncles (5 mm long) as compared with specimens from Fiji and Vanuatu. In New Caledonia the flowers are comparatively small (corolla c. 7 mm long) and, once seen in Guillaumin et al. 11832, the petals inside and the style are sparingly hairy.