Lepidopetalum blume (Lepidopetalum blume)
Description
Lepidopetalum is a genus of six species of trees known to science, constituting part of the plant family Sapindaceae. They grow naturally in New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sumatra and Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. Trees or sometimes remaining as shrubs, with greyish brown bark; monoecious; indumentum only simple hairs. Branchlets smooth or slightly grooved, lenticellate, hairy in new growth. Leaves paripinnate, without stipules, arranged alternately, petiole attachment to branch swollen, that and rachis not winged. Leaflets arranged ± opposite, increasing in size from base to apex, first ovate then to elliptic and obovate; petiolule short with a pulvinule; blade base cuneate, margins smooth, flat, both surfaces smooth apart from undersides’ hair–tufts domatia and raised veins. Inflorescences ramiflorous or arising from leaf axils, reduced thyrses with each node bearing usually 3 short cymes. Flowers regular–symmetrical, yellow–cream–white, pedicellate. Calyx of 5 sepals with triangular to oval–shaped lobes. Petals tiny, with their scales larger and usually without crests. Disc circular surrounding the bases of the 8–10 hairy stamens. Ovary 2 locular. Fruits obovoid–shaped, dehiscent red capsules, each composed of 2 valves and usually only developing 1 seed. Seeds ellipse-like shaped, black, with orange arils, which cover them from only at the base to nearly completely.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class:
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Order: Sapindales
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Family: Sapindaceae
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Genus: Sapindales
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