Lasianthus stercorarius Blume

115. Lasianthus stercorarius Blume View in CoL

Lasianthus stercorarius Blume (1826 View in CoL –1827) 1000; Miq. (1857) 324; (1869) 248; Merr. (1921) 577; Bakh.f. (1965) 341. — Type: Blume s.n. (holo L, barcode L0000707 ), Java, Mt Tjerimai .

Lasianthus stercorarius Blume var. polypleura Blume ex Miq. (1869) View in CoL 248,syn. nov. — Type: Blume s.n. (lecto L, designated here, barcode L0305599 ), Java; Blume s.n. (para L, barcode L0305583 ), Java .

Lasianthus mucronulatus (Korth.) Miq. var. lineata Miq. (1869) 249,syn.nov. — Type: Korthals s.n. (holo L, barcode L0310824 ), Sumatra.

Shrubs to treelets, up to 4.5 m high; branchlets terete, c. 2 mm diam, thinly appressed-puberulous or glabrous. Leaves: blades oblong-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 7–15 by 2–4 cm, subco- riaceous to coriaceous, glabrous above, puberulous hairs on venation beneath or glabrous also, apex acuminate-caudate, base acute, midrib slightly depressed above, prominent beneath, nerves flat and slightly obscure above, prominent beneath, 5 –9 pairs, ascending at an angle of 45–60°, curved to the margin, nervules obscure above, distinct beneath, subparallel; petioles 5 –10 mm long, puberulous or glabrous. Stipules triangular, 3 –6 mm long, coriaceous, swollen at the base, puberulous or glabrous. Cymes sessile; bracts absent. Flowers sessile; calyx urceolate or urceolate-cupular, c. 1.5– 2 mm long, with a truncate or minutely toothed limb, puberulous or glabrous; corolla tubular, c. 5 –7 mm long, puberulous outside. Drupes globose, glabrous or thinly puberulous, 3 – 5 mm diam, acute at the base, truncate or minutely toothed at the apex, conspicuously 6– 9-ridged; pyrenes 6– 9, smooth on the abaxial face.

Distribution — Malaysia (Peninsular, Borneo) and Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi).

Habitat & Ecology — In primary forest.

Notes — Lasianthus stercorarius is a very variable species in leaves, indumentum, and drupes. It is keyed out mainly by its conspicuously ovate-triangular stipules with swollen bases. The type specimen shows thin puberulous hairs on branches and leave nerves beneath; subcoriaceous leaves with 5– 6 nerves and nervules reticulate, apex acuminate, base acute; calyx limbs subtruncate and with 4–5 minute teeth; drupes with 8 –9 pyrenes. Two varieties were established: var. polypleura based on specimens with leaves of 8 pairs of nerves; var. palembanicus based on specimens with leaves of 12–14 pairs of nerves. The variety palembanicus is conspecific to L. mucronulatus and should be reduced to a synonym of the latter.

Lasianthus stercorarius differs from L. mucronulatus by having usually relatively small subcoriaceous leaves with acute to cuneate base and less than 10 pairs of nerves and conspicuously more than 2 mm long triangular stipules with swollen bases.

Lasianthus mucronulatus var. lineata was established on Korthals’s Sumatra specimens. It has triangular stipules with swollen base, subcoriaceous leaves with much acute base and should be reduced to L. stercorarius .