| Dicotyledon | Literature for Planchonella sandwicensis
Havran et al., 2021. |
| Sapotaceae -- The Sapodilla Family | Bibliography |
| Planchonella sandwicensis | |
Common name(s): `ala`a, aulu, kaulu |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Hawaiian Islands.In the Hawaiian Islands, endemic to Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui. | |
| Habitat | Mesic forests | |
| Elevation | 500-1400 m |
|
| Habit |
Gynodioecious shrub or tree up to 10 m tall; bark grey, longitudinal fissures develop with age, exuding white latex
upon damage; young branches with brown indument. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves alternate, exstipulate, simple, entire, elliptic, oblong to obovate, flat, 4–22 × 2.5–8.0 cm, greyish tomentulose to glabrous above, fawn to ferruginously tomentulose below, usually glabrescent, or glabrous if occurring in closed forest; base usually cuneate to somewhat round; apex round to obtuse,
infrequently acute or retuse; leaf venation brochidodromous, secondaries many, straight; tertiary veins parallel with
secondaries, sometimes admedial, almost perpendicular to the midvein, laxly reticulate in the distal part; petiole 9–50 mm long, covered in fawn to ferruginous, deciduous trichomes. |
|
| Flowers |
Flowers bisexual or female, 5-merous, 1–5 in axillary fascicles; pedicel (10–)12–20(–27) mm long, with fawn to ferruginous tomentulose indument; sepals 3–6 mm long, with round to acute apex, indumentum outside of the same kind
as the pedicel, glabrous inside except along the margin; corolla 3–6 mm long, dome-shaped, greenish, glabrous;
corolla tube and lobes of about equal length, lobes broadly ovate; stamens inserted in middle of the corolla tube, shorter than the corolla, glabrous; anthers 1.0–2.0 mm long; staminodes 1.1–2.7 mm, inserted in lobe sinuses, lanceolate to oblong, acute to fan-shaped, glabrous; gynoecium usually
with 5 locules, flask-shaped to subglobose, hirsute at base, tomentulose towards the style; style included within corolla; apex with minute stigmatic areas. |
|
| Fruit |
Fruit purple to black (or dark red), obovoid, ellipsoid to globose, 15–33 × 10–35 mm, apex round to acute, crowned by a remnant style, rarely up to 3 mm long, young fruit pubescent, glabrescent, 1–5-seeded or with all five ovules aborted. |
|
| Seeds |
Seeds with fawn to brown, shiny testa, 15–22 × 9–16 mm, laterally compressed, boat-shaped; seed scar as long as the seed, covering the adaxial surface;
cotyledons foliaceous, white, with an exserted radicle below the commissure; endosperm present. |
|
| Contributor |
Nancy Khan |
