''Pseuduvaria mollis'' 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

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

Otto Warburg Otto Warburg may refer to: *Otto Warburg (botanist) (1859–1938), German botanist *Otto Heinrich Warburg Otto Heinrich Warburg (, ; 8 October 1883 – 1 August 1970), son of physicist Emil Warburg, was a German physiologist, medical doctor, and ...

, the

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

botanists who first formally described the species using the basionym ''Goniothalamus mollis'', named it after the soft (, in Latin) hairs on its leaves and petals.

Description

It is a tree reaching 15 meters in height. The young, yellow-brown to black branches are very densely covered in hairs. Its elliptical to oval, papery to leathery leaves are 16–40 by 6–13 centimeters. The leaves have rounded to heart-shaped bases and tapering tips, with the tapering portion 2–17 millimeters long. The leaves are hairless on their upper surfaces and slightly hairy on their lower surfaces. The midribs of the leaves are densely covered in soft hairs. The leaves have 14–24 pairs of secondary veins emanating from their midribs. Its densely hairy petioles are 4-14 by 1.5–4.5 millimeters with a broad groove on their upper side. Its solitary

Inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s occur on branches, and are organized on peduncles that are 3–5 by 1–2.5 millimeters and densely covered with wooly hairs. Each inflorescence has 1–2 flowers. 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 ...

that is 6–13 by 1.5–2 millimeters and very densely covered with wooly hairs. The pedicels are organized on a rachis up to 5 millimeters long that have 4–5

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s. The pedicels have a medial

that is 3 millimeters long and very densely covered with wooly hairs. Its flowers are unisexual. Its flowers have 3 oval

sepals 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 ...

, that are 3.5–4.5 by 3.5–4.5 millimeters. The sepals are partially fused at their base. The sepals are hairless on their upper surface, covered in very dense wooly hairs on their lower surface, and wooly hairs at their margins. Its 6 petals are arranged in two rows of 3. The light brown, oval, outer petals are 8-8.5 by 7.5 millimeters. The outer petals are hairless on their upper surfaces and covered in very dense wooly hairs on their lower surfaces. The pale yellow, oval inner petals have a 1.5–2 millimeter long claw at their base and a 5.5–7.5 by 3.5–4.5 millimeter blade. The inner petals have slightly rounded bases and pointed tips. The inner petals are hairless on their upper and lower surfaces. Male flowers have up to 126

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 ...

s that are 0.7–1.2 by 0.5–0.8 millimeters. The fruit occur in clusters of 1–4 that are organized on densely hairy peduncles that are 4–12 by 2–4 millimeters. The fruit are attached by densely hairy pedicles that are 5–16 by 205 millimeters. The orange, elliptical fruit are 35–80 by 20–50 millimeters. The fruit are wrinkly, and slightly hairy. Each fruit has up to 20 smooth, lens-shaped seeds arranged in two rows. The seeds are 20–28 by 11–16 by 3–6 millimeters.

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''P. mollis'' is shed as permanent tetrads.

Habitat and distribution

It has been observed growing in rainforests and river flats at elevations of 60–460 meters.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17135227

mollis Mollis is a former municipality in the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Effective from 1 January 2011, Mollis is part of the municipality of Glarus Nord. History Mollis is first mentioned in 1288. Geography Mollis has an area, , of . Of this ...

Flora of New Guinea Plants described in 1891 Taxa named by Otto Warburg Taxa named by James Sinclair (botanist)