Alphonsea Hook. f. & Thomson

Tall trees. Leaves coriaceous, shiny above, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, 1 to several, fascicled, leaf-opposed or extra-axillary; buds conical; bracts usually present. Sepals 3, valvate, small. Petals 6 in 2 series, valvate, subequal or the inner smaller, saccate at base; outer ones not sepaloid. Stamens indefinite, miliusoid; connectives apiculate, produced, not concealing the anther-thecae. Carpels 1 - 8; ovules 4 - 10 in two rows; stigma almost sessile. Ripe carpels many, subsessile or stalked, thick-walled, glabrous, tomentose or verrucose.

India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia and New Guinea; ca 30 species, 5 species in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Leaves 20 - 26 cm long; pedicels ca 2 cm long

4. Alphonsea ventricosa

b. Leaves 7 - 15 cm long; pedicels 1 cm long or short

2

2a. Leaves lanceolate; ripe carpels tuberculate

3

b. Leaves elliptic or oblong; ripe carpels not tuberculate

4

3a. Leaves obtuse; petals ca 5 mm long

3. Alphonsea sclerocarpa

b. Leaves long-acuminate; petals ca 7 mm long

5. Alphonsea zeylanica

4a. Petals thick, ca 10 mm long; tips reflexed

1. Alphonsea lutea

b. Petals thin, 4 - 5 mm long; tips not relfexed

2. Alphonsea madraspatana

List of Lower Taxa