''Merrilliodendron'' is a
monotypic genus of
flowering plants belonging to the family
Icacinaceae. It has a synonym of ''Peekeliodendron'' .
The only species is ''Merrilliodendron megacarpum''
Its native range is Central
Malesia to western Pacific. It is found in the
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km.
History
The first inhabitants o ...
, the
Caroline Islands,
Marianas
The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...
,
New Guinea,
Philippines, the
Santa Cruz Islands, the
Solomon Islands and
Sulawesi
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
.
The genus name of ''Merrilliodendron'' is in honour of
Elmer Drew Merrill (1876–1956), an American botanist and
taxonomist, and also 'dendron' meaning tree. The Latin
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
of ''megacarpum'' is derived from the Greek word ''megacarpus'' meaning 'with big fruit'.
The genus was first described and published in Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) Vol.48 on page 920 in 1934,
[ and then the species was first described and published in Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem Vol.15 on page 243 in 1940.]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q9031807, from2=Q17271539
Icacinaceae
Monotypic asterid genera
Plants described in 1934
Flora of Papuasia
Flora of Malesia
Flora of the Northwestern Pacific