Desplatsia Bocq.

Wellsow, Julia, Hart, Michelle, Wilkie, Peter & Harris, David J., 2019, A taxonomic revision of the African genus Desplatsia Bocq. (Malvaceae - Grewioideae), European Journal of Taxonomy 584 (584), pp. 1-38 : 7-9

Genus Desplatsia Bocq.

Adansonia 7: 51 ( Bocquillon 1866). – Type species: Desplatsia subericarpa Bocq.

Grewiella Kuntze, Lexicon Generum Phanerogamarum : 257 ( Kuntze 1903). – Type species: Grewiella globosa (De Wild. & T.Durand) T.Durand & H.Durand , lectotype designated here.

Ledermannia Mildbr. & Burret, Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Zentral-Afrika-Expedition, 1907–1908, unter Führung Adolf Friedrichs, Herzogs zu Mecklenburg. Vol. 2: Botanik: 499 ( Mildbraed 1912). – Type species: L. chrysochlamys Mildb. & Burret.

Grewiopsis De Wild. & T.Durand Bulletin de la Société royale de Botanique de Belgique. Comptes- Rendus des Séances 38 (2): 176 ( De Wildeman & Durand 1899), nom. illegit., superfluous homonym, non Saporta 1865 – fossil.

Pleianthemum K.Schum. ex A.Chev. Exploration botanique de l’Afrique occidentale française. Vol. 1: Énumération des Plantes: 92 ( Chevalier 1920), nom. inval., no description.

Description

HABIT. Trees or shrubs.

LEAVES. Simple, alternate, mature leaves usually 9–40 cm long, 2.8–19 cm wide, margins obscurely to clearly toothed; stipules subulately divided, 2–5-fid, persistent.

INFLORESCENCE. An axillary or terminal cyme of few- to many-flowered umbels with an involucre of bracts, bracts often deciduous.

FLOWERS. Pedicellate or subsessile, buds round or elliptic; sepals 5, free, boat-shaped, sometimes fringed at the apex; petals 5, much smaller than the sepals, with a glandular area at the base inside, pubescent at base; androgynophore absent; stamens numerous, joined at base forming a staminal tube with a ring of hairs; anthers subglobose, dorsifixed, dehiscent longitudinally. Ovary 5–10-locular, hairy; style with finely fringed stigma; ovules numerous, in two rows in each locule.

FRUITS. Ellipsoid to subglobose, mature fruits 6.5–25 cm long, 5–20 cm wide, indehiscent, fibrous inside, irregularly, longitudinally 5–10 grooved, 5–10-locular.

SEEDS. Obovate, flattened, 0.7–1.8 cm long, 0.3–1 cm wide.

Notes

The genus contains four species. The fruits are mainly dispersed by elephants ( Wilczek 1963; Hall & Swaine 1981; Hawthorne 1995) and other large mammals. Desplatzia Bocq. ( Chevalier 1917) is considered an orthographic variant of Desplatsia Bocq. ( Bocquillon 1866) .

Distribution

Tropical West and Central Africa: Sierra Leone to Angola and across to Uganda.