''Neonauclea sessilifolia'' is a tree

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the Rubiaceae

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

. It is found in Taiwan, and then from Yunnan, Zhōngguó/China, to Southeast Asia and northeastern India.

Description

The tree grows some 7 to 30m tall, with a dark gray, transversely fissured and cracked bark, the inner bark is brown and sometimes mottled. The papery/thinly leather leaves are elliptic to elliptic-oblong or suborbicular in shape. The taxa is distinguished from other ''Neonauclea'' in China by having the following traits: the shape of the leaf blade, 6 to 9 pairs of secondary veins on the leaves with domatia in abaxial axils of the veins (occurring on the secondary, tertiary and even often on the quaternary veins); the corolla tuve is some 5-6mm. Flowers appear in October. The wood is whitish-grey, with a specific gravity of 0.7 g/cm³.

Distribution

The distribution of the species is slightly disjunctional, it grows in Taiwan, and then in a contiguous (clumped) area from Yunnan to Southeast Asia and northeastern India. Countries and regions where the plant grows are: Taiwan; Zhōngguó/China (

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

); Vietnam; Laos; Cambodia; Thailand; Myanmar; Bangladesh; and India (

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

Eastern Himalaya ] The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal across Northeast India, Bhutan, the Tibet Autonomous Region to Yunnan in China and northern Myanmar. The climate of this region is influenced by the monsoon of South Asia from June to September. It ...

Habitat, ecology

In Yunnan it grows in thickets or in

angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

forests on hills, at altitudes from 500 to 800m. In Southeast Asia it grows in dense/closed and secondary forest. The Renikhayong para Village Community Forest, Bandarban District, southeastern Bangladesh, is quite diverse, in 40 acres, there are 81 species of tree, in 35 families. Euphorbiaceae species are most frequent (11 sp.), Rubiaceae next with 7 species, including the not very frequent ''Neonauclea sessilifolia''. The forest is used by the neighbouring village for food and other material gathering, including charcoal making. Even though material is extracted from the forest, the locally managed high diversity is important for natural ecosystem conservation.

Vernacular names

无柄新乌檀, ''wu bing xin wu tan'' (

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern Standar ...

); ''ru'mliëy thôm'' ( Khmer); ''kam gaas'' (

Chakma Chakma may refer to: *Chakma people, a Tibeto-Burman people of Bangladesh and Northeast India *Chakma language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them **Chakma script ***Chakma (Unicode block) Chakma is a Unicode block containing characters for ...

, Bangladesh); ''kadam'' (Bandarban District, Bangladesh).

Uses

The wood is not very durable, in Cambodia it used for temporary constructions and the twig are used as firewood. The Chakma people living in the

Hill Tracts The Chittagong Hill Tracts ( bn, পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম, Parbotto Chottogram), often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, are group of districts within the Chittagong Division in southeast ...

region of southeastern Bangladesh, use the leaves in their indigenous medicine to treat skin infections (leaf paste applied twice daily).

History

A prolific botanist, and very active academic,

Elmer Drew Merrill Elmer Drew Merrill (October 15, 1876 – February 25, 1956) was an American botanist and taxonomist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through t ...

first described the species in 1915, in his article "On the application of the generic name ''Nauclea'' of Linnaeus", published in the ''Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences'' (Baltimore, MD).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q11085620 sessilifolia Flora of Assam (region) Flora of Bangladesh Flora of Cambodia Flora of East Himalaya Flora of Indo-China Flora of Laos Flora of Myanmar Flora of Taiwan Flora of Thailand Flora of Vietnam Flora of Yunnan Plants described in 1915 Taxa named by William Roxburgh