Aglaia Lour.

Scientific Description

Family Meliaceae.

Family Meliaceae, Subfamily Melioideae, Tribe Aglaieae.

Habit and leaf form. Trees. ‘Normal’ plants. Leaves cauline. To 3–40 m high. Mesophytic. Leaves large, or very large; alternate; spiral; petiolate; with ‘normal’ orientation; compound, or simple (occasionally); pinnate, or ternate (occasionally); imparipinnate. Leaflets 1–25. Lateral leaflets opposite. Leaflets ovate, or obovate, or elliptic, or oblong; rounded at the base, or cordate, or attenuate to the base, or cuneate at the base; flat. Leaflet margins flat. Leaf blades dorsiventral; pinnately veined. Mature leaf blades adaxially glabrous, or scabrous; abaxially glabrous, or scabrous. Leaf blade margins entire; flat. Leaf anatomy. Hairs present. Branched hairs present. Complex hairs peltate, or stellate.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male, or functionally female. Unisexual flowers present. Plants dioecious. Plants not viviparous; homostylous.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’. Inflorescence many-flowered. Flowers in panicles. Inflorescences compound. The terminal inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences axillary, or terminal (rarely). Flowers pedicellate, or sessile; minute, or small; fragrant (smelling of citronella); regular; 3–5(–6) merous; cyclic. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 6–11; 2 -whorled; isomerous, or anisomerous. Calyx present; 3–5(–6); 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; lobed; lobulate. Calyx lobes markedly shorter than the tube, or about the same length as the tube, or markedly longer than the tube. Calyx erect, or spreading; open in bud, or imbricate; exceeded by the corolla; cupuliform (often thickened at the base); unequal but not bilabiate. Corolla present; 3–5(–6); 1 -whorled; polypetalous, or gamopetalous (united at the base); imbricate (or quincuncial); unequal but not bilabiate; glabrous abaxially, or hairy abaxially (with stellate hairs or peltate scales); yellow, or pink, or white. Petals subrotund elliptic, or obovate; hooded (at the apex when in bud). Corolla members entire. Androecial members definite in number. Androecium (3–)5–10(–21). Androecial members free of the perianth, or adnate (rarely, partially); all equal; coherent (filaments fused into a tube); 1 - adelphous; 1 -whorled (or rarely 2 or more). Stamens (3–)5–10(–21); all more or less similar in shape; reduced in number relative to the adjacent perianth, or isomerous with the perianth, or diplostemonous. Filaments glabrous, or hairy (with stellate or simple hairs on the inner surface of the staminal tube). Anthers all alike; dehiscing via short slits. Gynoecium 1–3(–10) carpelled. The pistil 1–3(–10) celled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous, or monomerous; eu-syncarpous, or of one carpel; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 1–3(–10) locular. Ovary summit hairy, the hairs not confined to radiating bands (nor confined to the summit). Gynoecium stylate, or non-stylate. Styles 0–1; apical. Stigmas 1; 2–3(–4) - lobed; ovoid, cylindrical, or depressed-globose. Placentation axile (where carpels more than 1). Ovules 1–2 per locule.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit 40–100 mm long; dehiscent, or indehiscent; a berry, or a nut, or a capsule (more rarely). Dispersal unit the seed. Seeds non-endospermic; not compressed; large; arillate. Cotyledons 2. Seedling. Germination cryptocotylar (Pennington & Styles (1975)).

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia, or adventive. Endemic to Australia, or not endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, or Northern Territory, or Queensland, or New South Wales. Northern Botanical Province. N=20,40; 2n=92. A genus of 100 species; 1 species in Western Australia.