''Monodora minor'' 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 exclu ...

in the family

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest family in the Ma ...

. It is native to

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

and

Ludwig Diels Dr. Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Pri ...

, the German botanists who first formally described the species, do not explicitly explain the specific epithet but it is among the smaller ( in Latin) members of the genus which includes species that reach heights of 30-40 meters.

Description

It is a bush or small tree reaching 6 meters in height. Its branches have

lenticels A lenticel is a porous tissue consisting of cells with large intercellular spaces in the periderm of the secondarily thickened organs and the bark of woody stems and roots of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It functions as a pore, providing a ...

. Its papery leaves are 6-18 by 3.3-8 centimeters and rounded at their tips. The leaves are smooth on their upper and lower surfaces. Its petioles are 4-8 millimeters long. Its pendulous flowers are arranged in cymes which are extra-axillary. Each flower is on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

2-5 centimeters long. Its flowers have 3 oval-shaped sepals that are 7-8 by 4-6 millimeters. Its 6 petals are arranged in two rows of 3. The outer petals are yellow with red highlights, 1.9-2 by 1.1-1.5 centimeters, and have wavy margins. The inner petals are similarly colored with margins that touch one another before they mature. The inner petals have a 3-6 millimeter wide

claw A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tarsus ...

at their base and a 1-1.2 by 0.9-1.1 blade. The inner petals are smooth on their outer surface, hairy inside, and densely hairy on their margins. Its

stamens 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 ...

that are 0.5-0.75 millimeters long. Its fruit are 4.2 by 2.5 centimeters and pale green with yellow spots when developing and dark purple when dry. Its shiny, light brown seeds are 1.4 by 1.1 by 0.65 centimeters, and triangular in cross-section.

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''M. minor'' is shed as permanent tetrads.

Habitat and distribution

It has been observed growing in coastal regions in wet forests at elevations from 100 to 780 meters.

References

minor Flora of Mozambique Flora of Tanzania Plants described in 1901 Taxa named by Adolf Engler Taxa named by Ludwig Diels {{annonaceae-stub