Annickia Setten & Maas, Taxon 39 (4): 676, 1990

Couvreur, Thomas L. P., Dagallier, Leo-Paul M. J., Crozier, Francoise, Ghogue, Jean-Paul, Hoekstra, Paul H., Kamdem, Narcisse G., Johnson, David M., Murray, Nancy A. & Sonke, Bonaventure, 2022, Flora of Cameroon - Annonaceae Vol 45, PhytoKeys 207, pp. 1-532 : 30

Annickia Setten & Maas, Taxon 39 (4): 676, 1990

= Enantia Oliv. nom. illeg.; J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 9: 174-175, 1867.

Type species.

Enantia chlorantha Oliv. (≡ Annickia chlorantha (Oliv.) Setten & Maas).

Description.

Trees, up to 30 m tall, d.b.h. up to 50 cm; stilt roots or buttresses absent, slash yellow. Indumentum of simple, stellate and/or fasciculate hairs. Leaves: petiole 2-9 mm long, 1-2 mm in diameter; blade 3.5-29.5 cm long, 1.5-10.5 cm wide, elliptic to obovate, apex acuminate to acute, base narrowly cuneate to shortly attenuate to rounded; midrib sunken or flat; secondary veins 8 to 13 pairs; tertiary venation reticulate. Individuals bisexual; inflorescences ramiflorous on old or young foliate branches, leaf opposed or extra axillary. Flowers with 6 perianth parts in 2 whorls, 1 per inflorescence; pedicel 4-19 mm long; in fruit 10-27 mm long; bracts 1 to 2, basal and one upper towards the middle or lower half of pedicel, 2-8 mm long; sepals 3, valvate, free, 5-22 mm long, triangular, apex acute, base truncate; petals free; outer petals absent; inner petals 3, valvate, 12-34 mm long, 5-19 mm wide, ovate, margins inversely Y-shaped ridged, apex acute, base broad and concave; stamens 60 to 200, in 5 to 6 rows, 2-4 mm long, linear; connective tongue shaped or flattened, glabrous; staminodes absent; carpels free, 20 to 70, ovary 2-4 mm long, stigma lobed or cylindrical, pubescent. Monocarps stipitate, stipes 6-59 mm long, 5 to 55 monocarps, 18-35 mm long, 4-14 mm in diameter, ellipsoid to obovoid, apex sometimes mucronate, smooth, glossy; seed 1, 20-30 mm long, ca. 10 mm in diameter, ellipsoid; aril absent.

A genus of eight species mostly distributed across west and central Africa, with one endemic species in Tanzania; four species occur in Cameroon, none endemic.

The genus is easily identifiable when sterile by its yellow slash, and when fertile, by its leaf opposed or extra-axillary (terminal) flowers with 3 sepals and 3 petals, and stipitate monocarps with a single seed.

Taxonomy.

Versteegh and Sosef (2007).