''Epicharis parasitica'', commonly known as yellow mahogany, is a species of tree in the family

Meliaceae Meliaceae, the mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs (and a few herbaceous plants, mangroves) in the order Sapindales. They are characterised by alternate, usually pinnate leaves without stipules, and by syncarp ...

; it grows primarily in

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zo ...

s and is native to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, parts of

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms. It is a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical kingdom. It was first recognized as a distinct region ...

Papuasia Papuasia is a Level 2 botanical region defined in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It lies in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in the Melanesia ecoregion of Oceania and Tropical Asia. It comprises th ...

, and northeast

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Description

''Epicharis parasitica'' grows up to tall with a trunk diameter of up to .

Buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act a ...

may be present, growing up to tall and wide. The bark is yellowish to grey-brown, and smooth to flaky with scattered

lenticel A lenticel is a porous tissue consisting of cells with large intercellular spaces in the periderm of the secondarily thickened organs and the Bark (botany), bark of woody stems and roots of gymnosperms and dicotyledonous flowering plants. It func ...

s. The compound leaves are arranged spirally on the twigs and measure up to long with up to 19 leaflets. Leaflets are oblong to ovate in shape and up to long by wide, with about 14 lateral veins each side of the midrib. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

up to long, growing from protrusions on the trunk of the tree in a process called

cauliflory Cauliflory is a botanical term referring to plants that flower and fruit from their main stems or woody trunks, rather than from new growth and shoots. It is rare in temperate regions but common in tropical forests. There have been several st ...

, or from woody branches (

ramiflory In plant biology, ramiflory is the production of fruit and flowers on the woody branches of a plant, formed in a previous season. The corresponding condition for the trunk of the plant is known as cauliflory Cauliflory is a botanical term ...

). The sweetly scented flowers are white or cream with four petals. The white staminal tube measures about long and wide. The fruit is a

globose This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary ...

red-brown capsule about diameter. It has up to four segments with one seed contained in each. The seeds are about long, brownish-black and with an orange-red

sarcotesta The sarcotesta is a fleshy seedcoat, a type of testa. Examples of seeds with a sarcotesta are pomegranate, ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants, assigned to the gymnosperms. The scientific name is also used as the Eng ...

Taxonomy

This species was first described by the Swedish naturalist

Pehr Osbeck Pehr Osbeck (1723 – 23 December 1805) was a Swedish explorer, naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. He was born in the parish of Hålanda on Västergötland and studied at Uppsala with Carolus Linnaeus. Naturalist in Canton In 1750� ...

as ''Melia parasitica'', and published in 1757 in his book ''Dagbok ofwer en Ostindisk Resa aren 1750, 1751, 1752''. Since then, it had been described more than 40 times by various authors who gave it various names (see synonyms), before it was transferred to the genus ''

Dysoxylum ''Dysoxylum'' is a genus of rainforest trees and shrubs in the flowering plant family Meliaceae. About 34 species are recognised in the genus, distributed from India and southern China, through southeast Asia to New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and A ...

'' by Indonesian botanist

André Joseph Guillaume Henri Kostermans Dr. André Joseph Guillaume Henri 'Dok' Kostermans (Purworejo, 1 July 1906 – Jakarta, 10 July 1994) was an Indonesian botanist of Dutch ancestry. He was born in Purworejo, Java, Dutch East Indies, and educated at Utrecht University, taking his ...

in 1966. Australian populations were known as ''Dysoxylum schiffneri''.

Etymology

The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) ...

is from the Latin word '' parasiticus'' meaning 'parasitic', referring to Osbeck's early mistaken belief that the flowers were parasitic.

Distribution and habitat

The yellow mahogany's natural range includes

, the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

, Maluku,

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

, the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

and

. It grows in well developed rainforest, including that on limestone, at altitudes from sea-level to around .

Ecology

The flowers are visited by butterflies, an important pollinator of the family. Possums and bats also contribute to the pollination as they climb the trunk of the tree looking for food.

Uses

''Epicharis parasitica'' has potential as a feature tree in parks or gardens in areas with subtropical or tropical climates.

Cultivation

It prefers acid soils with good drainage and dappled sun or part-shade. The species can be propagated by fresh seed.

Gallery

File:Dysoxylum-parasiticum-ALA1.jpg, Fruit File:Dysoxylum-parasiticum-ALA2.jpg, Inflorescence on the trunk File:Dysoxylum-parasiticum-ALA4.jpg, On a branch File:Dysoxylum-parasiticum-SF21318-03.jpg, Young tree File:Dysoxylum-parasiticum-SF21318-04.jpg, Foliage File:Dysoxylum-parasiticum-SF22168-02.jpg, Flower buds File:Dysoxylum-parasiticum-SF22361-02.jpg, Leaves File:Dysoxylum-parasiticum-SF22361-03.jpg, Stout petioles attached to the twig

References

External links

* *
View a map
of recorded sightings of this species at the

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgama ...

View observations
of this species on

iNaturalist iNaturalist is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. iNaturalist may be accessed via its web ...

See images
of this species on Flickriver {{Taxonbar, from=Q124547204

parasitica Parasitica (the parasitican wasps) is an obsolete, paraphyletic infraorder of Apocrita containing the parasitoid wasps. It includes all Apocrita except for the Aculeata. Parasitica has more members as a group than both the Symphyta and the Aculea ...

Trees of Taiwan Trees of Malesia Trees of Papuasia Trees of Australia Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1966