Author: Prain
Morphological description (Leucost latistipul lf/pod FM39 )
Trees . Stipules intrapetiolar, persistent.
Leaves spirally arranged, paripinnate, (1 or)2-5(or 6)-jugate; stipels very small. Leaflets opposite or subopposite, often with a small, swelling gland on the margin close to the base, petiolulate.
Inflorescences racemose, fascicled, on trunks or old branches, or in axils of fallen leaves; bracts and bracteoles small, persistent beyond anthesis or deciduous.
Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, pedicels articulated above the 2 bracteoles. Hypanthium infundibuliform, tubular, or cylindric. Calyx lobes 4, imbricate. Petals 2 (or 1) developed, lateral, much shorter or smaller than the calyx lobes, with or without reduced or rudimentary ones. Stamens 2 fertile, opposite the petals; filaments filiform, dilated at basal parts; anthers ovoid or oblong, longitudinally dehiscing; staminodes 2 or 3. Ovary with the stipe free from or adnate to the floral tube, oblong or elliptic, 2-5(or more)-ovuled; style filiform; stigma capitellate.
Pods recurvate, oblong, compressed, smooth, shortly beaked, dehiscent, the valves coriaceous or woody, at length twisted, 3-5-seeded.
Seeds discoid or ellipsoid.
Distribution
Malesia: Malaya and Sarawak, two species: Leucostegane grandis , and Leucostegane latistipulata .
Habitat
Lowland forest.
Notes
1. Some sterile specimens of Leucostegane may resemble Saraca . However, in the former the leaflets are sometimes stipellate and the stipules are intrapetiolar and persistent while in the Genus Saraca the leaflets are never stipellate and the stipules are axillary and usually caducous.
2. Flowering collections of Laeucostegane can be easily distinguished from those of Saraca by the presence of two petals, with or without reduced or rudimentary ones (against petals 0) and two fertile stamens (against usually 4-8).
3. The pollen grains of Leucostegane and Saraca are globose, tricolporate. However the exine patterns in these two genera are quite different: conspicuously verrucae in the former and scabrate-punctate in the latter.