Saurauia glabra explained

Saurauia glabra is a species of plant in the Actinidiaceae family. It is native to Borneo.[1] Elmer Drew Merrill, the American botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its hairlessness (glaber in Latin).[2]

Description

It is a tree reaching 15 meters in height. Its leathery leaves are 10-18 by 4-8 centimeters and their tips come to a shallow point. The leaves are green on their upper side, brownish below, and smooth on both surfaces. The leaves have 8-15 pairs of secondary veins emanating from their midribs. The leaf margins have shallow rounded teeth. Its petioles are 1-3 centimeter long. It has inflorescences of 25-50 flowers on peduncles 2-8 centimeters in length. Its flowers have 5 sepals. The outer pair are elliptical and 6 by 3.3 millimeters. The inner 3 are 8 millimeters long. The flowers have a corolla with 5 lobes; each lobe is 5-9 by 3.5-6 millimeters. Its flowers have around 30-80 stamens that are 0.5-0.85 millimeters in length. Each flower has a 4-5 chambered ovary. Its flowers have 3 styles that are 9 millimeters long, and fused at their base for the last 1-2 millimeters.[3]

Reproductive Biology

The pollen of S. glabra is shed as permanent tetrads.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Saurauia glabra Merr. . . n.d. . Plants of the World Online . The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . December 18, 2018.
  2. Merrill. E.D. . 1918 . The Bornean Species of Eugenia, Schefflera, and Saurauia, represented in the Singapore Herbarium . Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 19–36.
  3. Book: Soejarto, Djaja D. . 1980 . Revision of South American Saurauia (Actinidiaceae) . Field Museum of Natural History . 33.
  4. Jagudilla-Bulalacao, L (1997) Pollen Flora of the Philippines, Volume 1, Taguig, Metro Manila: Department of Science and Technology, Special Projects Unit, Technology Application and Promotion Institute.