Author: Vidal
Morphological description (see also description of Genus Gleditsia ) (rolfei Gledtisia compl FM34 )
Tree 20--22 m tall, 40--45 cm in diameter, trunks with stout thorns up to c. 8 cm long; young branches with supra-axillary thorns up to 1 cm long.
Leaves 10--24 cm long; shortly petioled, both petiole and rachis sparsely puberulous; petiolules short. Leaflets up to c. 26 per pinna or on a simply pinnate leaf, coriaceous, oblong, rhomboid-oblong, or lanceolate, 2.5--7 by 1--2.5 cm, slightly unequal-sided; apex mucronate or slightly notched; base acute; margin slightly irregularly crenate; glabrous on both surfaces; nerves c. 10 per side (rolfei Gleditsia lf/infl LCV12 ).
Inflorescences up to c. 9 cm long; pedicels 3--5 mm.
Flowers puberulous outside. Hypanthium short, c. 2 mm long. Calyx lobes 5, lanceolate, slightly imbricate, 3--3.5 mm long. Petals 5, white, similar to calyx lobes in shape and size. Stamens 10; filaments subulate, apical part inflexed, pilose except the apical part; anthers versatile, 1.3 mm long, apiculate; reduced to staminodes in female flowers. Ovary covered with appressed hairs, c. 20-ovuled; pistil reduced in male flowers, filiform or obscure.
Pods (10--)20--26 by 2--3 cm.
Seeds up to c. 20, ellipsoid, compressed, c. 12 by 6 mm.
Distribution
Vietnam, Laos, Taiwan; Malesia : Philippines (Luzon, Samar, Negros, Mindanao), Celebes (Minahasa, Maros, Mt Bonthain).
Habitat & Ecology
In rainforest, up to 250(--900) m altitude Fl. February, September, October; fr. February, April, May, August, September, December
Uses
Wood suitable for house building material.
Note
Koorders (1898: 433) based his new species Gleditsia celebica exclusively on his own collections from NE Celebes (Minahasa) in the `Mus. Hort. Bogor' (now BO) without citation of specimens and without designation of the type. The species was later treated as a synonym of G. rolfei in the publications of Koorders-Schumacher (1914: 54) and Koorders (1918: 10). The Koorders collections were then cited under that species. These collections obviously belong to the authentic material of G. celebica , so they may be (all) considered as the syntypes. Ding Hou (1996: 622) has not found any published lectotypification of the name.