Miquelia caudata King

Species

Angiosperms > Icacinales > Icacinaceae > Miquelia

Characteristics

A slender climber up to 6 m. Branchlets pale, striate, early glabrescent and corticate, 2-5 mm ø. Leaves oblong-lanceolate to elliptic-oblong, apex shortly, sometimes rather abruptly acuminate, base broadly cuneate to rounded, thin-charta-ceous to membranaceous, glabrous above, laxly puberulous all over the surface and soft to the touch beneath, glabrescent, entire, (10-)12-20 by (4-)5-8 cm, midrib and nerves moderately raised beneath, nerves 1 or 2 basal and 5-6 upper pairs, equally curved-ascending and rather obscurely anastomosing, reticulation generally lax and but slightly prominent; petiole pubescent, 1.2-3(-4) cm. Umbels of ♂ inflorescences solitary or mostly several, in fascicles or along a short rachis from hairy tubercles of foliate or defoliate axils of the branchlets; peduncle filiform, 1.5-3 cm, the whole inflorescence set with short almost scabrid hairs. Calyx cup-shaped, 1 mm, 4(-5)-lobed halfway. Petals 4 (or 5) united to a filiform elongate basal tube-like (4-10 mm), free in the upper oblong and ± spreading part (2 mm), white. Stamens 4 or 5; filaments short; anther cells elongate-linear, subsagittate, 1.5 mm. Rudiment of ovary hirsute. ♀ Flowers 8-15 together in capitules on top of axillary, solitary stoutish peduncles, these glabrescent and accrescent in fruiting stage up to 11 cm. Calyx as in ♂ flowers. Petals without a markedly elongate basal part, i.e. close to the calyx, somewhat leathery and glabrous, 2.5 mm. Ovary tomentose; stigma discoid, wider than the ovary. Drupe broadly ovoid, laterally much compressed, rounded at base in general, though abruptly narrowed to a slender stipe for 5-7 mm, at the base of which the remnants of the petals and calyx are found, tapering upwards to a tail or beak for (5-)6-10 mm, crowned by a small stigma, 2.3-3(-3.3) by 1.3-1.8 by 0.7-1 cm; exocarp thin, rusty-pubescent, ripening to a tomato or orange red; endocarp bony, rather deeply (1-2 mm) and coarsely reticulate-lacunose outside, tubercled all over inside.
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Growth form shrub
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Sexuality hermaphrodite
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Mature height (meter) 6.0
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Environment

Primary forest, also mossy forest, from the lowland up to 1980 m on Mt Kinabalu.
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Usage

Uses. The stem holds a reservoir of potable water. VAUGHAN-STEFFENS stated that the red fruits are added to Antiaris latex in making ‘sakai (pangan)’ dart-poison ( RIDL. Agr. Bull. Mal. Pen. 8 1898 209 ), but no confirmation of this has been available.
Uses medicinal poison
Edible -
Therapeutic use Arrow-poison (unspecified), Watervine (unspecified)
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Cultivation

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Distribution

Miquelia caudata world distribution map, present in Iceland

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:608048-1
WFO ID wfo-0000373718
COL ID -
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Miquelia caudata