Flacourtia Comm. ex L'Hér.

M. Thulin et al. Flora of Somalia, Vol. 1-4 [updated 2008] https://plants.jstor.org/collection/FLOS

Morphology General Habit

Shrubs or trees, sometimes with spines

Morphology Leaves

Leaves entire or serrate-crenate

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Petals lacking

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Female flowers: receptacle with a disk; ovary incompletely divided into usually 4–6 cells; styles as many as the locules, free or ± connate Male flowers: stamens 15 to numerous, surrounded by a ring of glands Flowers small, in short axillary racemes or solitary, unisexual or rarely bisexual. Sepals (3–)4–5(–7), imbricate

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit fleshy with 4–16 seeds.

Distribution

Some 20 species in the Old World tropics, two of which in Africa.

Flacourtiaceae, H. Sleumer (Rijksherbarium, Leiden). Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1975

Morphology General Habit

Shrubs or trees, sometimes with spiny branches and/or trunk

Morphology Leaves

Leaves alternate, entire or serrate-crenate, penninerved, petiolate, exstipulate

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers dioecious, or rarely bisexual, small, in short axillary racemes, sometimes reduced to a solitary flower Female flowers: sepals as in the ♂ flowers. Receptacle with an entire, crenulate or lobed disk. Ovary sessile, incompletely (2–)4–6(–8)-locular by false septa; placentas 4–8, pluri-ovulate, with 2 ovules per locule one above the other; styles as many as the locules, free or ± connate, persistent; stigmas small, inflated or shortly 2-lobed Male flowers: stamens 15 to numerous, inserted on a receptacle which bears an extra-staminal annular disk usually broken into ± free glands; filaments filiform; anthers dorsifixed. Rudiment of ovary 0

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Sepals (3–)4–5(–7), slightly connate at the base, imbricate in bud

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Petals 0

sex Male

Male flowers: stamens 15 to numerous, inserted on a receptacle which bears an extra-staminal annular disk usually broken into ± free glands; filaments filiform; anthers dorsifixed. Rudiment of ovary 0

sex Female

Female flowers: sepals as in the ♂ flowers. Receptacle with an entire, crenulate or lobed disk. Ovary sessile, incompletely (2–)4–6(–8)-locular by false septa; placentas 4–8, pluri-ovulate, with 2 ovules per locule one above the other; styles as many as the locules, free or ± connate, persistent; stigmas small, inflated or shortly 2-lobed

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit a fleshy drupe with 4–16 seeds usually in pairs one above the other

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds obovoid-ellipsoid, somewhat flattened; testa crustaceous.

Timothy M. A. Utteridge and Laura V. S. Jennings (2022). Trees of New Guinea. Kew Publishing. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Distribution

A genus of about 15 species from tropical Africa and throughout Asia and Malesia to Polynesia; four species in New Guinea.

Morphology General Habit

Shrubs or trees to 25 m in New Guinea; often with thorns and/or spines, especially when young Plants usually dioecious but sometimes with hermaphrodite flowers

Morphology Leaves Stipules

Stipules very small or absent

Morphology Leaves

Leaves spirally arranged, ±3–5-nerved at the base, otherwise pinnate-veined, margins crenate; petioles short

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescences axillary, racemose. Flowers unisexual, rarely hermaphrodite; sepals 4–6(–7), slightly connate at the base; petals absent

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Staminate flowers: stamens 15–numerous, free; disk glands opposite sepals; pistillode absent

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Pistil

Pistillate flowers: ovary incompletely (2–)4–6(–10)-celled by false septa, ovules 2 per cell; disk entire or crenulate; styles as many as cells, free or ±connate, stigmas notched or shortly 2-lobed

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit a fleshy, indehiscent drupe, pyrenes twice the number of styles

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds (l–)2 per pyrene, obovoid.

Ecology

In New Guinea, members of Flacourtia are found in primary lowland rain forest, but also disturbed and logged habitats from sea level to 1300 m.

Recognition

The genus can be recognised by the alternate leaves with crenate margins and relatively short petioles, the short axillary inflorescences, flowers with a disk (usually orange in colour), the staminate flowers with numerous stamens, the pistillate flowers usually with several free styles which are persistent in fruit (giving a ‘crown’ appearance on the apex). Flacourtia and Xylosma can be extremely morphologically similar, as Sleumer noted in Flora Malesiana “there are no reliable differences between Xylosma and Flacourtia vegetatively and in the ♂ sex”, but the leaf morphology of the individual species will allow identification.