''Goniothalamus elegans'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the family Annonaceae. It is native to

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

Suzanne Jovet-Ast Suzanne Jovet-Ast (born 1914) was a French botanist, who worked principally at the National Museum of Natural History, France. Life Suzanne Ast was born in Paris, France, on 8 February 1914. She received her Baccalauréat (1932) from Lycée ...

, the French botanist who first formally described the species, named it after its elegant ( in Latin) thin, flexible leaves.

Description

It is a tree reaching 2 meters in height. Its branches are black or gray. Its petioles are 5 millimeters long with a channel, and either hairless or with fine yellows hairs. Its long, narrow leaves are 7–10.5 by 1.2-1.8 centimeters and come to a tapering point. The leaves have sparse fine hairs on their upper surface and are smooth on their lower surface. The leaves have 10-12 pairs of secondary veins emanating from the midrib. Its solitary flowers are in axillary positions on 3-4 millimeter long

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

. Its 3 oval

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s have blunt tips and their outer surfaces are covered in short red hairs while their inner surfaces are hairless. Its flowers have 6 petals in two rows of 3. Its outer, oblong petals are 12 millimeters long. Its inner petals are narrower and shorter and united at their top. The flowers have numerous wedge-shaped

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

about 1.5 millimeters long. Its

gynoecium Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

have multiple hairless carpels with oval

ovaries The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. T ...

and slightly narrower styles topped by wider stigma that together are longer than the ovaries.

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''G. elegans'' is shed as permanent tetrads.

Uses

Bioactive molecules extracted from its bark have been reported to be cytotoxic in tests with cultured human cancer cells, and to have

antiplasmodial ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which then injects parasites into a verteb ...

activity.

Distribution and Habitat

It has been observed growing in deciduous forests at elevations of 300 to 600 meters.

References

elegans Flora of Thailand Flora of Vietnam Species described in 1938 Taxa named by Suzanne Jovet-Ast {{Annonaceae-stub