Author: Schreber
Morphological description (bantamensis Crudia all K&V15 )
Trees or shrubs , rarely scramblers. Stipules usually intrapetiolar, small or rarely large, often connate (at the basal parts), sometimes interpetiolar and free, caducous or persistent.
Leaves in a spiral, imparipinnate or seemingly paripinnate (sometimes with a prolonged tip of rachis beyond the apical leaflet, often deciducous), 1-9(-13)-foliolate, petioled; petiolules short. Leaflets alternate, very rarely opposite; midrib usually slightly grooved above and elevated beneath; nerves slightly patent, ascending and arcuately anastomosing extending towards near the margin, usually slightly impressed above and prominent beneath; veins often faintly loosely reticulate, usually obscure or invisible above, obscure or sometimes distinct beneath.
Inflorescences racemose, axillary or terminal, very rarely cauline (C. cauliflora ), solitary or fasciculate; bracts entire or lobed (sometimes 3-lobed with the central lobe redivided), often caducous, sometimes persistent; bracteoles 2, (sub)opposite or alternate, often minute or small, or relatively large and enclosing the young flower buds, often caducous, sometimes persistent; pedicels rather short, articulated.
Flowers bisexual. Hypanthium (or receptacle) shortly cupular or campanulate. Calyx lobes imbricate, often ciliate on the margin, reflexed during flowering. Corolla absent. Disk absent (or a protruding rim or ring round the mouth of hypanthium). Stamens 10 or fewer, often caducous; filaments united at their basal parts, sometimes seemingly free, ± equal or slightly unequal in length; anthers small, ovoid, ellipsoid, or oblong, dorsifixed, longitudinally dehiscing. Pistil shortly stipitate, stipe free or (partly) adnate to the hypanthium; ovary elliptic or ovate, often densely hairy, 1-6-ovuled; style filiform; stigma terminal, small, knob-like.
Pods obliquely orbicular, ellipsoid or ovoid, coriaceous or slightly woody, compressed or somewhat swollen, dehiscing, 2-valved, 1-4(-6)-seeded.
Seeds suborbicular or subreniform, compressed, cotyledons concave, exarillate, exalbuminous.
Distribution
A tropical genus consisting of about 50 species, distributed in America, Africa, and Asia; in Malesia 30 species, incl. 2 doubtful ones.
Habitat & Ecology
In lowland forest, sometimes occurring up to 400 m alt. De Wit (1950, p. 411) found that "the cotyledons are concave with a large inner cavity (also found, e. g., in Entada ), which may cause buoyancy and promote dispersal".
Note - The important, main reference for Malesian Crudia is the comprehensive revision published by de Wit (1950, p. 407-434).
De Wit, H.C.D. 1950. Bull. Bot. Gard. Buitenzorg III, 18: 407-434.
DOUBTFUL TAXA
Crudia curtisii Prain var. wallichii Prain, J. As. Soc. Beng. 66, ii (1897) 221, 487; Ridley, Fl. Malay Penins. 1 (1922) 645. -Syntypes: Wallich Cat. no. 5983 & 8089 (K), Penang I.
Author: Prain
Description
Leaves: leaflets papery, 7-9, uniformly densely softly velvety beneath, leaflets acute not cuspidate or caudate at apex.
Distribution
Malesia : Malay Peninsula (Penang I.).
Note
Prain (1897, p. 487) described the characters of his variety as copied above, and also recorded its vernacular name as `Kumpas ruman'. Ridley (1922: 645) already clearly stated that the "var. wallichii Prain is based on specimens collected by Wallich 5983 and 8089. They are leaf-specimens only, very hairy and quite indeterminable".
Crudia orientalis Hasskarl, Cat. Hort. Bot. Bogor. (1844) 288 (`Crudya '); Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. 1, 1 (1855) 80 (`Crudya '); de Wit, Bull. Bot. Gard. Buitenz. III, 18 (1950) 433. - Type unknown (vernacular name: Aroj kitjienteh, Java).
Author: Haskarl
Morphological description
Shrub.
Leaves 7-jugate; rachises and branchlets rusty-tomentose. Leaflets with acute apex, rotundate at the base, and rusty ciliate margin.
Pod thick, brown tomentose, 2-seeded.
Distribution
Uncertain. Java ?.
Note
The authentic material of this species has not been located. De Wit (1950: 433) has already expressed that it "is not at all certain that this is a species of Crudia ".