Flora Zambesiaca

Taxon Detail

FZ volume:8 part:7 (2005) Lamiaceae by R. Fernandes

(Search other Kew databases for: Gmelina arborea)

Gmelina arborea Roxb. (cultivated)

Pl. Corom. 3: 41, Pl. 246 (1815); Fl. Ind., ed. 2, 3: 84 (1832). —Brenan, Check-list For. Trees Shrubs Tang. Terr.: 639 (1949). —White, For. Fl. N. Rhod.: 368 (1962). —Huber, Hepper & Meikle in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 2: 432 (1963). —van der Schijff & Schoonraad in Bothalia 10, 3: 496 (1971). —J.H. Ross, Fl. Natal: 300 (1972). —Biegel, Check-list Ornam. Pl. Rhod. Parks & Gard. [Rhodesia Agric. J., Research Report No. 3]: 58 (1977). —H. Moldenke & A. Moldenke in Rev. Fl. Ceylon 4: 390 (1983). —Verdcourt in F.T.E.A., Verbenaceae: 2 (1992). Type a cultivated plant in Calcutta Botanical Garden.

Synonyms:

Gmelina arborea var. glaucescens C.B. Clarke

in J.D. Hooker, op. cit.: 582 (1885). Type from India.

Gmelina rheedii Hook.

in Bot. Mag. 74: t. 4395 (1848). Type a cultivated plant at Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew.

Premna arborea (Roxb.) Roth

Nov. Pl. Sp.: 287 (1821). Type as above.

Distribution:

Malawi

N: Karonga town, planted as a street tree, 480 m, 15.vii.1970, Brummitt 12133 (K).

Mozambique

MS: Beira, 23.iv.1962, Balsinhas & Macuácua 578 (LISC).

T: Estima, c. 340 m, 19.x.1973, Macêdo 5301 (LMA).

Zambia

C: Kabwe (Broken Hill) Nursery, seedling, 10.viii.1954, Cooling 54 (FHO).

Zimbabwe

C: Harare, cultivated as ornamental in Avondale Garden, 27.ii.1972, Biegel 4113 (K).

Range:

Native to Pakistan, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Indo-China, Malaysia, Polynesia and S China. Introduced in tropical South America and elsewhere.

Habitat:

In Africa it is cultivated as a garden ornamental and as a street tree. In Malawi it has been planted in plantations as fuel wood mostly for use in tobacco barns (fide <i>Brummitt</i> 12133). 

Description:

An unarmed deciduous tree up to 20 m tall; trunk straight, bole clear to 10 m. Branchlets tawny pubescent soon glabrous and smooth greyish to brownish with conspicuous circular lenticels, striate. Leaves ± discolorous, 10–25 × 7.5–18 cm, broadly-ovate or ovate-cordate, acuminate or caudate at the apex, subcordate to rounded or truncate at the base with 2 glands, entire, toothed or lobed on turions or young plants, sparsely to densely lepidote and glaucous-green and glabrous to velvety stellate-pubescent or -tomentose beneath; with 4–5 lateral nerves on each side of the midrib, the lowest pair basal; petiole 5–15 cm long. Panicles many-flowered, 7.5–39 cm long, erect, with short-cymes, the flowers appearing before or with the young leaves; bracts 1–1.5 cm long, linear or linear-lanceolate, caducous. Calyx c. 5 mm long, campanulate, shortly 5-dentate, fulvous-tomentose, somewhat accrescent in fruit. Corolla yellow or brilliant orange to reddish or brownish-yellow or pinkish-brown to salmon or apricot-coloured, 2.5–4 cm long, densely pubescent outside; limb 2-lipped, with the upper lip deeply divided into 2 oblong, obtuse lobes, the lower lip 3-lobed with the median lobe longer and broader than the lateral ones. Stamens ± exserted, one pair sometimes sterile. Drupe 1.5–2.5 cm long, ovoid on obovoid-pyriform, orange-yellow at maturity. Seeds 1–2 (by abortion).