Author: Prain
Morphological description
Tree to 20 m tall and 30 cm in diameter.
Leaves 2- or 3-jugate, subsessile or shortly petioled, petiole and rachis 3-16 cm long. Leaflets chartaceous, lanceolate, 5.5-35 by 2-11 cm, apex acuminate rarely caudate; base cuneate to attenuate, sometimes obtuse, symmetric; glabrous; midrib elevated above, prominent beneath; nerves 9-11 per side; petiolules 2-10 mm.
Inflorescences 5-20 cm wide, puberulent, main branches 7-14 cm long; bracts and bracteoles ovate or broadly elliptic, 5-10 by 4-8 mm, glabrous, spreading, persistent; pedicels 22-30 mm, the length between bracteoles and flower 5-11 mm.
Flowers orange yellow or orange, turning to deep crimson, sweet scented, articulated near the base, glabrous outside. Hypanthium (3-)5.5-7 mm long, c. 2 mm wide at the throat, hairy at the upper half inside. Calyx lobes ovate, elliptic, oblong, or obovate, (3-)5-10 by (2-)4-5.5 mm. Stamens 4, rarely 3; staminodes 0; filaments 15-25 mm, glabrous; anthers broadly ovoid, c. 0.75 mm long. Pistil stipitate, free part of stipe 1.5-5 mm, hairy; ovary 2-4 mm long, 2-ovuled; style 8-12 mm; stigma minute, round.
Pods red, suborbicular, broadly ovoid or obovoid, or oblong, 4-8 by 3-4 cm, c. 0.5 cm thick, thinly woody, 1- or 2-seeded, with obliquely apiculate apex and rounded base.
Seeds (young) ovoid, c. 1.5 by l cm.
Distribution
Malesia : Borneo (Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei, Kalimantan).
Habitat & Ecology
Lowland and riverine forests, often immediately beyond tidal limits, on clayey soil, sand- or limestone, once found on peat, up to 300 m altitude Fl. January, March, April, July-November; fr. July, October
Notes
1. Saraca hullettii can be easily recognized with fertile material by the following characters: 1) leaves 2- or 3-jugate, 2) bracteoles persistent, 3) hypanthium (or calyx tube) short, 3-7 mm long, about the same length as or slightly longer than the calyx lobes, 4) ovary 2-ovuled, and 5) pods suborbicular, shortly oblong, ovoid, or subovoid, 4-8 by 3-4 cm, and 1- or 2-seeded.
2. The present species is the only one known in this genus with a 2-ovuled ovary while the others have an ovary with (4-)6-12 ovules.