Xylopia L.

Johnson, David M. & Murray, Nancy A., 2020, A revision of Xylopia L. (Annonaceae): the species of Madagascar and the Mascarene islands, Adansonia 42 (1), pp. 1-88 : 16

I. Xylopia L. section Xylopia

Xylopia section Pseudanona Baill., Adansonia ; Recueil d’Observations botaniques 4: 141, 142 (1864). — Type: Pseudanona amplexicaulis (Lam.) Saff. (lectotype designated by Safford [1913: 18]).

Xylopia section Habzelia Engl. & Diels, Monographien Afrikanischer Pflanzen-Familien und Gattungen 6: 58 (1901) . — Type: Xylopia aethiopica (Dunal) A. Rich. (lectotype designated in Stull et al. [2017: 221]).

TYPE SPECIES. — As for the genus, X. muricata L.

DESCRIPTION (FOR SPECIES OF THE SECTION FROM MADAGASCAR AND THE MASCARENE ISLANDS)

Nodes with a branch from a single axillary bud; outer and inner petals linear to ovate, similar in length, or the inner petals shorter and narrower; inner petals sometimes laterally compressed, with margins curved inward at base but of uniform texture, lacking differentiated fleshy basal margins; anther connective apex shield-shaped, overhanging the anther thecae; staminal cone present, completely concealing the ovaries, rim even; carpels 7-27, the stigmas connivent, smooth; seed coat smooth, rarely slightly pitted and wrinkled, sarcotesta absent in Malagasy and Mascarene species; aril bilobed, fleshy.

NOTES

Eight species of this section occur on Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. Species of sect. Xylopia are the only Annonaceae represented on the islands of La Réunion and Mauritius. The section also includes all tropical American species and the single African species X. aethiopica .