Crudia caudata

Author: Prain.

Morphological description (caudata Crudia infl 386541 )
Tree 25 m high. Stipules more or less intrapetiolar, triangular to lanceolate, up to 7(-13) mm long.

Leaves (4-)6-8-foliolate, shortly petioled; petiole and rachis up to 10 cm long, ending in a subulate tip (up to 10 mm long), rusty tomentose; petiolules very short, 1-2 mm, pubescent. Leaflets chartaceous or subcoriaceous, elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, 7-9(-15) by 2-3(-4) cm; apex acuminate or caudate; base obtuse, rounded, or cuneate, symmetric; glossy, glabrous above, rusty pubescent (often dense on the midrib) beneath; nerves 5-8 per side.

Inflorescences racemose, axillary or terminal, usually erect, up to c. 15 cm long, the rachis rusty tomentose, rather densely flowered; bracts ovate to lanceolate, sometimes oblanceolate, (5-)7-9 mm long, pubescent outside and glabrous inside, some of them 3-lobed and the central lobe imparipinnately relobed; bracteoles lanceolate or spoon-shaped, 6-9 mm long, almost enclosing the bud; pedicels 10-15 mm, pubescent, articulated at the apex (caudata Crudia inflpp 386541 ).

Flowers pubescent outside. Hypanthium 2-2.5 mm long. Calyx lobes 4 (sometimes with 1 or 2 additional, smaller, glabrous ones), ovate, unequally sized, 5-7 by 3.5-5 mm, glabrous inside. Stamens 10, or rarely 9; filaments unequal in length, up to c. 15 mm; anthers 0.75 mm long. Pistil shortly stipitate; stipe c. 2 mm long, free, glabrous; ovary c. 3 mm long, (4-)6-ovuled; style 8-17 mm, glabrous or slightly hairy at the basal part; stigma slightly thicker than the style.

Pods (unripe) elliptic, ovate-oblong, or obovate, 7-10 by 2.5-3.5 cm, flat, cuneate at both ends, rusty, velvety, valves thinly leathery, usually 1-seeded (caudata Crudia pod/lvs 386540 ).

Seeds shortly oblong, broadly elliptic, or rounded, flat, 3-4 by 2-3 cm.

Distribution
Thailand (Peninsula, once collected); in Malesia: Malaya (Trengganu, Johore), Borneo (Sarawak, W Kalimantan).

Habitat & Ecology
In forest on river banks, and freshwater swampy areas, level land or a few m altitude Fr. June, July.

Notes
1. The plants which were in the past cultivated in the Botanic Garden of Bogor, Java, have died.
2. Specimens of this species can be easily distinguished from others in this genus by the caudate leaf apex, as alluded by the specific epithet, and (densely) rusty tomentose young branchlets, leaf under surface (especially on the midrib), leaf rachises and inflorescences.
3. The ovary is not 1-ovuled (cf. J.E. Vidal 1984, p. 92); it is actually (4-)6-ovuled.

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