''Spathiostemon moniliformis'' is a

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 ...

that can grow as a shrub or a tree in the

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...

family,

Acalypheae The Acalypheae is a tribe of the subfamily Acalyphoideae, under the family Euphorbiaceae. It comprises 12 subtribes and 32 genera. Genera See also *Taxonomy of the Euphorbiaceae Here is a full taxonomy of the family Euphorbiaceae, accordin ...

tribe. It is endemic to southern/peninsular Thailand.

Description

The species grows as a shrub or tree, in height up to 10m, with a trunk diameter at breast height up to 11 cm. Leaves are rarely ovate tending usually to elliptic, some 6.2-26.5 x 2.3-9.5 cm in size, on both sides they are smooth and glabrous. Flowers are white to yellowish. The fruit is reddish to dark brown, smooth and glabrous, some 9 x 6mm in size. It flowers and fruits from December to March, August to September. The species is distinguished from its sister taxa ''

Spathiostemon javensis ''Spathiostemon javensis'' is a plant that can grow as a shrub or a tree in the tribe Acalypheae of the family Euphorbiaceae. It is native to the region from the Bismarck Archipelago to New Guinea, Wallacea and into Southeast Asia. It is often co ...

'' by the following traits: Glabrous petioles; the leaves do not have domatia; the inflorescences are glabrous, and the staminate inflorescences are from 6 to 28 cm long; the pistillate flowers have sepals in 2 whorls of 3; the ovary and fruit are smooth. The taxa is distinguished from other

growing in Thailand by having: elliptic leaves whose basal margin has 3 black dot-like glands on either side of the midrib; the petioles are both basally and apically pulvinate; seeds do not have arilloid.

Habitat, ecology

The shrub/tree is common in evergreen forest and in secondary forests that have evergreen patches. It grows from 10 to 200m altitude.

Distribution

The tree is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to southern/peninsular Thailand.

Vernacular names

''Kha khao'' and ''khan laen'' are names used for this species in Surat Thani Province, Thailand.

History

The English botanist

Herbert Kenneth Airy Shaw Herbert Kenneth Airy Shaw (7 April 1902 – 1985) was a notable English botanist and classicist. Airy Shaw was born at The Mount, Grange Road, Woodbridge, Suffolk to a father serving as Second Master at the Woodbridge Grammar School and a mother ...

, who worked extensively on tropical Asian botany and entomology, described the species in 1962, in the

Kew Bulletin The ''Kew Bulletin'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal on plant and fungal taxonomy and conservation published by Springer Science+Business Media on behalf of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Articles on palynology, cytology, anatomy, ...

Description

Habitat, ecology

Distribution

Vernacular names

History

References

Further reading