Horsfieldia superba Warb.

Species

Angiosperms > Magnoliales > Myristicaceae > Horsfieldia

Characteristics

Tree 10-30 m. Twigs sometimes faintly angular, 5-8 mm diameter, late glabrescent, at first with dense, rusty, dendroid hairs 0.5-1 mm long, bark dark grey, striate, sometimes slightly cracking and flaking; lenticels usually many and conspicuous. Leaves usually in 2, sometimes in 3 rows (see note 2), coriaceous, (elliptic-)oblong, (17—)25— 40(-70) by (7.5-) 10-18(-22) cm, base narrowly subcordate to short-attenuate, apex ± blunt to acute-acuminate; upper surface drying dull olivaceous-brown with finely wrinkled structure, glabrescent (except sometimes midrib), lower surface with (bright) brown rather sparse to dense mealy indumentum of dendroid hairs of mixed size, (0.3-) 0.5-1 mm long, usually with many or few emerged hairs to 1.5 mm long; dots absent; midrib rather broad, flat above, pubescent or glabrescent; nerves 15-25(-30) pairs, flat or sunken above, lines of interarching fairly regular, not very distinct; venation faint on both surfaces; petiole 6-15 by 5-7 mm, late glabrescent; leaf bud 20-30 by 5-10 mm, with dense hairs 0.5-1.5 mm long. Inflorescences behind the leaves, with ± dense, woolly, long-branched yellowish brown dendroid hairs 0.5-1 mm long; in male: rather many-flowered, 2 or 3 times branched, 7-15 by 2.5-10 cm, peduncle 1-1.5 cm; in female: ± few-flowered, somewhat branched, 2-5 cm long; bracts broadly ellipsoid, subacute-acuminate, up to 12 by 10 mm, densely pale brownish pubescent, caducous; flowers in male up to 5 in a cluster, glabrous, perianth 3-or 4-lobed, drying often with a grey bluish tinge, pedicel not articulated. Male flowers: pedicel slender, 1.5—3.5(—5) mm; buds ellipsoid to obovoid-ellipsoid, 6-7(-8) by 4-5 mm, base rounded to short-attenuate, cleft 1/5-1/4, lobes 0.4 mm thick; androecium elongate-ellipsoid, subcylindrical to triangular in cross section, (4-)4.5-5 by 2.2-2.5 mm, apex subtruncate, with a shallow 3-radiate crack, base subtruncate (Plate 2:48); thecae 32-40, completely sessile; androphore rather narrow, 0.1-0.4 mm long. Female flowers: pedicel stout, 2-3.5 mm long; buds ellipsoid, 7-8 by 4.5 mm, cleft c. 1/5, lobes rather coriaceous; ovary ovoid, slightly compressed, 4-4.5 by 3 mm, glabrous, stigma shallowly 2-lobed, broad, 0.5 by 1.5 mm. Fruits 1-3 per infructescence, broadly ovoid-ellipsoid, 3.8-5.5 by 2.8-4.5 cm, glabrous, ± coarsely warty and wrinkled, pericarp 8-12 mm thick; fruiting pedicel stout, 3-6 mm long; perianth persistent.
More
A tree. It grows 30 m tall. The leaves are oblong and 17-60 cm long by 9-28 cm wide. Plants are separately male and female. The flowers are in clusters up to 15 cm long. The flowers are small and yellow. The fruit are 15 cm long with a fleshy aril around the seeds.
Life form -
Growth form tree
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention evergreen
Sexuality dioecy
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Mature height (meter) 20.0 - 30.0
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Nitrogen fixer -
Photosynthetic pathway c3

Environment

It is a tropical plant. It grows in rainforests and near freshwater swamps. It grows up to 400 m above sea level.
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Hardiness (USDA) 9-12

Usage

Uses -
Edible fruits
Therapeutic use -
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Cultivation

It can be grown from seed.
Mode seedlings
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Images

Horsfieldia superba unspecified picture

Distribution

Horsfieldia superba world distribution map, present in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore

Conservation status

Horsfieldia superba threat status: Near Threatened

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:585787-1
WFO ID wfo-0000724962
COL ID 3MQDV
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN) Link
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Palala superba Horsfieldia superba Myristica superba