''Monodora minor'' is a species of

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

in the family

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...

. It is native to

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

and

Ludwig Diels Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Pritzel thro ...

, the German botanists who first formally described the species, do not explicitly explain the

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

but it is among the smaller ( in Latin) members of the genus which includes species that reach heights of 30-40 meters.

Description

It is a bush or small tree reaching 6 meters in height. Its branches have

lenticels A lenticel is a porous tissue consisting of cells with large intercellular spaces in the periderm of the secondarily thickened organs and the bark of woody stems and roots of gymnosperms and dicotyledonous flowering plants. It functions as a pore ...

. Its papery leaves are 6-18 by 3.3-8 centimeters and rounded at their tips. The leaves are smooth on their upper and lower surfaces. Its petioles are 4-8 millimeters long. Its pendulous flowers are arranged in

cymes In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's 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 main axis ( ped ...

which are extra-axillary. Each flower is on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

2-5 centimeters long. Its flowers have 3 oval-shaped

sepals A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

that are 7-8 by 4-6 millimeters. Its 6 petals are arranged in two rows of 3. The outer petals are yellow with red highlights, 1.9-2 by 1.1-1.5 centimeters, and have wavy margins. The inner petals are similarly colored with margins that touch one another before they mature. The inner petals have a 3-6 millimeter wide

claw A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or Arthro ...

at their base and a 1-1.2 by 0.9-1.1 blade. The inner petals are smooth on their outer surface, hairy inside, and densely hairy on their margins. Its

stamens The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...

that are 0.5-0.75 millimeters long. Its fruit are 4.2 by 2.5 centimeters and pale green with yellow spots when developing and dark purple when dry. Its shiny, light brown seeds are 1.4 by 1.1 by 0.65 centimeters, and triangular in cross-section.

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''M. minor'' is shed as permanent tetrads.

Habitat and distribution

It has been observed growing in coastal regions in wet forests at elevations from 100 to 780 meters.

References

minor Minor may refer to: Common meanings * Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities. * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to an ...

Flora of Mozambique Flora of Tanzania Plants described in 1901 Taxa named by Adolf Engler Taxa named by Ludwig Diels {{annonaceae-stub