Merope angulata
(Willd.) Swingle in J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 5: 420. 1915 & Citrus Ind. 1: 258. 1967. Citrus angulata Willd., Sp. Pl. 3: 1426. 1801. Atalantia longispina Kurz in 1. Asiat. Soc. Bengal Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 42: 295. 1872. Pammignya angulata (Willd.) Kurz in 1. Asiat. Soc. Bengal Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 44: 135. 1875. P. longispina Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 511. 1875.
Beng.: Ban-nimbu.
Shrubs or small trees, evergreen; branchlets cylindric, armed with strong, sharp, straight, axillary, solitary or paired spines (to ca 2 cm long), glabrous; bark greyish, lenticellate. Leaves simple, alternate, to 12 cm long, often crowded on short lateral branchlets; petioles short, to 8 mm long, slightly marginate, articulate with stem 4 at base, glabrous; leaf blades oblong, obtuse at base, entire along margins, obtusely acute at apex, 3 - 15 x 1 - 5.5 cm, thick, coriaceous, profusely pellucid-gland dotted, glabrous; secondary nerves 5 - 8 pairs, visible in larger leaves, rather faint in smaller ones, arising at angles 55° - 60° with midnerve, anastamosing near margins; tertiaries indistinct; pedicels ca 5 mm long glabrous. Flowers axillary, solitary or in pairs, ellipsoid in bud, to 7 mm long. Calyx cupular, ca 1.5 x 2 mm, 5-lobed; lobes ovate, subacute, ca 1 mm long, glandular- punctate, glabrous. Petals 5, elliptic-oblong, obtuse above, subtruncate at base; ca 10 x 4 mm, conspicuously pinnately veined, glandular, glabrous, imbricate, white or yellowish. Stamens 10, subequal; filaments ca 3 mm long, shorter than anthers, linear, with a prominent midnerve, glabrous; anthers linear-oblong, apiculate, ca 4.5 x 1 mm; apiculum ca 0.5 mm long. Disk annular, ca 0.8 mm high, glabrous, thick, fleshy. Ovary ovoid-ellipsoid, ca 4 mm long, 3 - 5-locular; each locule with 4 ovules; style cylindric, ca 3 mm long, glabrous; stigma truncate or subcapitate, minute. Berries semidry, strongly angled, with a narrow tapering end, triangular in cross sections, ca 5 x 2.5 cm; pericarp glandular, 3-loculed, the interior of each locule filled with a mucilaginous fluid devoid of pulpvesicles; seeds 3, large, reniform, flattened with tapering ends.
Fl. April - July; Fr. Ripens in Nov.
Distrib. India: Tidal forests and marshy swamps of the Sunderbans in W. Bengal and the Mahanadi delta in Orissa. Rare (Banerji et al., (1989). Mangroves of India 99. (1989).
Myanmar, Malesia, Java, Singapore and New Guinea.
Notes. Fruits are medicinal and used in colic.
This species is salt tolerant and may be useful as a rootstock for Citrus spp.
Shrubs or small trees, evergreen; branchlets cylindric, armed with strong, sharp, straight, axillary, solitary or paired spines (to ca 2 cm long), glabrous; bark greyish, lenticellate. Leaves simple, alternate, to 12 cm long, often crowded on short lateral branchlets; petioles short, to 8 mm long, slightly marginate, articulate with stem 4 at base, glabrous; leaf blades oblong, obtuse at base, entire along margins, obtusely acute at apex, 3 - 15 x 1 - 5.5 cm, thick, coriaceous, profusely pellucid-gland dotted, glabrous; secondary nerves 5 - 8 pairs, visible in larger leaves, rather faint in smaller ones, arising at angles 55° - 60° with midnerve, anastamosing near margins; tertiaries indistinct; pedicels ca 5 mm long glabrous. Flowers axillary, solitary or in pairs, ellipsoid in bud, to 7 mm long. Calyx cupular, ca 1.5 x 2 mm, 5-lobed; lobes ovate, subacute, ca 1 mm long, glandular- punctate, glabrous. Petals 5, elliptic-oblong, obtuse above, subtruncate at base; ca 10 x 4 mm, conspicuously pinnately veined, glandular, glabrous, imbricate, white or yellowish. Stamens 10, subequal; filaments ca 3 mm long, shorter than anthers, linear, with a prominent midnerve, glabrous; anthers linear-oblong, apiculate, ca 4.5 x 1 mm; apiculum ca 0.5 mm long. Disk annular, ca 0.8 mm high, glabrous, thick, fleshy. Ovary ovoid-ellipsoid, ca 4 mm long, 3 - 5-locular; each locule with 4 ovules; style cylindric, ca 3 mm long, glabrous; stigma truncate or subcapitate, minute. Berries semidry, strongly angled, with a narrow tapering end, triangular in cross sections, ca 5 x 2.5 cm; pericarp glandular, 3-loculed, the interior of each locule filled with a mucilaginous fluid devoid of pulpvesicles; seeds 3, large, reniform, flattened with tapering ends.
Fl. April - July; Fr. Ripens in Nov.
Distrib. India: Tidal forests and marshy swamps of the Sunderbans in W. Bengal and the Mahanadi delta in Orissa. Rare (Banerji et al., (1989). Mangroves of India 99. (1989).
Myanmar, Malesia, Java, Singapore and New Guinea.
Notes. Fruits are medicinal and used in colic.
This species is salt tolerant and may be useful as a rootstock for Citrus spp.
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