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Planchonella spathulata

(Hillebr.) Pierre (1890)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Asterids Order: Ericales Family: Sapotaceae Genus: Planchonella

‘āla‘a, ‘ēla‘a, āulu, kaulu

Description

Key Characters: Pedicel usually > 1 cm long; corolla (usually) yellowish or cream; fruit yellow

Growth Form: Tree or shrub, stiff-branched 3-15 m tall; Gynodioecious.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: alternate elliptic to obovate, flat, longitudinally rolled, wavy or even distally deflexed, 2.5–12.0 x 1.5–5.2 cm; apex acute to round, occasionally retuse base cuneate to round blade indument variable, usually greyish tomentulose on both surfaces, often ferruginous or mixed leaf venation brochidodromous, secondaries many, straight; tertiary veins parallel with secondaries, sometimes admedial, almost perpendicular to the midvein, laxly reticulate in the distal part

Flowers: Flowers 1–5 in axillary fascicles Flowers bisexual or female, 5-merous, 1–5 in axillary fascicles; pedicel 1–9(–10) mm long, tomentulose with brown indument sepals 2.5–5.0 mm long, with round to acute apex, indumentum outside of the same kind as the pedicel, glabrous inside, sometimes with some trichomes at apex and along the margin corolla 2.5–6.0 mm long, dome-shaped, yellowish or cream, rarely greenish, glabrous; corolla tube and lobes of about equal length, lobes triangular to ovate stamens inserted in the middle of the corolla tube or sometimes just below tube orifice, shorter than the corolla, glabrous; anthers 1.0–1.1 mm long; staminodes 1.2–2.0 mm long, inserted in lobe sinuses, lanceolate to triangular in bisexual flowers, fan-s gynoecium usually with 5 locules, flask-shaped to conical, usually vermilion hirsute around the base; style included within the corolla; apex with minute stigmatic areas

Fruit: Fruit 12–33 3 9–26 mm; yellow; ovoid to globose; apex round to acuminate; crowned by a 0.5–4.0 mm long remnant style; young fruit often pubescent; glabrescent; 1–5-seeded or with all five ovules aborted Seeds with a brown; shiny to dull testa; 11–25 x 13–16 mm; laterally compressed; boat-shaped; seed scar +/- 90% of the seed length; covering the adaxial surface; cotyledons foliaceous; white; with an exserted radicle below the commissure; endosperm present

Ploidy:

Habitat: In the scrub of open plateau on the leeward side of Lanai.

Elevation Range: 300–1220 m

Historical Distribution

Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Native Range

Hawaii

Statewide Status

Endemic

Island Status

Kaua'i Endemic
O'ahu Endemic
Molokai Endemic
Lana'i Endemic
Maui Endemic
Hawai'i Endemic

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Bibliography

Name Published In: Notes Bot. Sapot.: 36 (1890)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:1233 (Syn. P. spathulata = Pouteria sandwicensis); Swenson et al. 2007/Wagner et al. 2012:69 (Syn. Pouteria sandwicensis = Planchonella sandwicensis); Havran et al. 2021:884 (K, O, Mo, L, M, H, RESURRECT, DESCR, KEY)

Swenson, U., Munzinger, J., & Bartish, I. V. (2007). Molecular phylogeny of Planchonella (Sapotaceae) and eight new species from New Caledonia. Taxon, 56(2), 329-354.

Hillebrand, W. (1888). Flora of the Hawaiian Islands: a description of their phanerogams and vascular cryptogams. Williams & Norgate.

Havran, J. C., Nylinder, S., & Swenson, U. (2021). Taxonomic Reevaluation of Endemic Hawaiian Planchonella (Sapotaceae). Systematic Botany, 46(3), 875-888.

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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