''Pseuduvaria aurantiaca'' 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

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

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 ...

Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (24 October 1811 – 23 January 1871) was a Dutch botanist whose main focus of study was on the flora of the Dutch East Indies. Early life Miquel was born in Neuenhaus and studied medicine at the University of Gr ...

, the Dutch botanist who first formally described the species using the

basionym In the scientific name of organisms, basionym or basyonym means the original name on which a new name is based; the author citation of the new name should include the authors of the basionym in parentheses. The term "basionym" is used in both botan ...

''Orophea aurantiaca'', named it after its orange colored (, in Latin) fruit.

Description

It is a tree that reaches 5 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 leathery leaves are 14-19.5 by 5.5-7.5 centimeters and have pointed tips. The leaves are hairless when mature. The leaves have 12-18 pairs of secondary veins emanating from the central rib. Its petioles are 1.5-5 millimeters long with a groove on their upper side.

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 ...

s are organized on slightly hairy peduncles 20-35 millimeters long. Each inflorescence consists of up to 10 flowers. Each flower is on a densely hairy

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 ...

2-4 millimeters in length. The flowers are unisexual. 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'' ...

, 0.8 by 1 millimeters, that have blunt tips. The outer surface of the sepals is densely hairy while the inside is smooth, and their margins have very fine hairs. Its 6 petals are arranged in two rows of 3. The outer petals are white or yellow-green and 2 by 2 millimeters. The outer petals are smooth on the inside and densely hairy on the outside. The inner petals have a 0.9 millimeter

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 2-3.5 by 1.5-2 millimeter blade. The inner petals are smooth on their upper surface and densely hairy on their lower surface. Male flowers have up to 26

stamen 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 filament ...

s that are 0.5-0.6 millimeters long. The

gynoecium Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl (botany), whorl of a flower; it consists ...

consists of 1-2 unfused carpels (monocarps). Fruit are attached to 30-40 millimeter peduncles by 8-9 millimeter pedicles. Mature monocarps are orange, hairy, wrinkly ellipsoids, 17–21 by 13-19 millimeters. Each monocarp has 6-8 wrinkly seeds, 8.5-13 by 6-8.5 millimeters.

Reproductive biology

The pollen of ''P. aurantiaca'' is shed as permanent tetrads.

References

External links

* Flora of New Guinea Plants described in 1915 aurantiaca Endemic flora of New Guinea Taxa named by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel {{annonaceae-stub