Botanical Survey of India | Flora of India

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Atalantia racemosa Wight in Hooker's J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 1: 64, t. 122(Jan.) 1834; Hook. f., Pl. Brit. India 1: 512. 1875. Sclerostylis atalantioides auct. non Wight & Arm. 1834: Wight, Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient. 1: t. 71. 1838. S. racemosa Wight, Ill. Ind. Bot. 1: 109. 1840. S. parviflora Wight, l.c


Shrubs or medium trees, 2 - 15 m high; branchlets cylindric, glabrous or minutely puberulous, often armed with strong, axillary spines (up to 2.5 cm long), or rarely unarmed; bark greenish to brown, smooth or longitudinally striate, lenticellate. Leaves unifoliolate; petioles 5 - 10 mm long, shallowly channelled above or obscurely marginated, articulate above at base of blade, puberulent to glabrous; leaflet blades ovate-oblong to oblong-elliptic or obovate, cuneate at base, obtuse or shortly acuminate at apex with ca 5 mm long acumen, crenulate or subentire along margins, 4.5 - 9.5(-16) x 2 - 4.5 cm, dark green above, pale beneath, coriaceous, glabrous, emarginate tip; secondary nerves 8 - 22 pairs, oblique, anastamosing, finely reticulate. Inflorescences terminal and axillary racemes; peduncles single or sometimes fascicled, up to 4 cm long, pubescent or glabrous; bracteoles subulate, minute, ciliolate; pedicels slender, 3 - 8 mm long, shortly pubescent to glabrous. Sepals 3 - 5, triangular to suborbicular, subacute, ca 1.5 mm long, scarious and ciliate along margins. Petals usually 4, broadly elliptic or linear-oblong to obovate, obtuse, 6 - 8 x 2 - 4 mm, glandular, penninerved, glabrous, white. Stamens usually 8, as long as or slightly longer than petals; filaments usually connate into a partial basal tube, occasionally 1 or 2 free; anthers ovoid or oblong, cordate at base, 1 - 2 mm long, subdorsifixed. Disk annular, ca 0.5 mm high, ca 1.5 mm fleshy, glabrous. Ovary ovoid or subglobose, 1 - 2 mm long, glandular or not, with or without stylar canals, glabrous, 2- or 3-locular; each locule with 2 ovules; style short, ca 1.5 mm long, glabrous; stigma capitate. Berries globose, 2- or 3-locular, up to 2 cm, 2-seeded, orange-coloured when ripe.



KEY TO THE VARIETIES


1a. Secondary nerves in leaflets 8 - 12 pairs; stigma capitate without stylar canals; ovary eglandular 2.2. racemosa
b. Secondary nerves in leaflets 12 - 22 pairs; stigma not clearly distinguished from style, with stylar canals corresponding to the number of loculcs; ovary glandular 2.1. bourdillonii



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