''Terminalia pendula'' is an Asian species of tree in the family

Combretaceae The Combretaceae, often called the white mangrove family, are a family of flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, G ...

. It is a medium-sized tree found in both primary and secondary tropical and sub-tropical

forests A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological functio ...

. It is recorded from India to China, south to Thailand and Vietnam. It may be one of the dominant species of

seasonal tropical forest Seasonal tropical forest, also known as moist deciduous, semi-evergreen seasonal, tropical mixed or monsoon forest, typically contains a range of tree species: only some of which drop some or all of their leaves during the dry season. This tropic ...

s of

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. In Yunnan it is found in rocky limestone areas, near sea level to . Besides timber uses, the bark of this species has a high tannin content.

Taxonomy

A 2017 article embedded genera including ''

Anogeissus ''Terminalia'' is a genus of large trees of the flowering plant family Combretaceae, comprising nearly 300 species distributed in tropical regions of the world. The genus name derives from the Latin word ''terminus'', referring to the fact that ...

'' into ''Terminalia''; there are now three varieties of this species: # ''T. pendula var. fischeri'' (M.Gangop. & Chakrab.) Chakrab. & Anand Kumar - Indian subcontinent # ''T. pendula var. pendula'' - the nominate variety, formerly known as ''Anogeissus acuminata''; Vietnamese: ''chò nhai'' or ''râm'' # ''T. pendula var. phillyreifolia'' (Van Heurck & Müll.Arg.) Chakrab. & Anand Kumar - was ''T. phillyreifolia'' - from

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

where the variety may be called "buttontree" or ''yon'' (from ; IPA: ).

Description

In China, where it is known as 榆绿木 (yu lü mu), these trees grow to tall with a trunk to in diameter at breast height. In Myanmar they may be larger: up to tall and up to girth, with a straight and cylindrical trunk. The branchlets are slightly pendent, slender, together with petioles and leaf blades golden villous when young. The petioles are cylindrical, 2–6 mm and the

leaf A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the plant stem, stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leav ...

blades are

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

to narrowly so, 40-80 × 10–30 mm long, grey-green on the back and pilose mostly in the axils of lateral veins. They are green and

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

to glabrescent on the leaf surface. The leaf base is narrowed or obtuse, the apex

acuminate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

. There are five to seven inconspicuous lateral veins in pairs. The flowers are numerous sessile on

flower heads A pseudanthium (; : pseudanthia) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, composite flowers ...

9–13 mm in diameter;

bracts In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also loo ...

are easily deciduous and linear, 4–5 mm long. The calyx tubes are approximately 5 mm long, abaxially yellow pubescent, densely so on ovary and tubular part, and more sparsely so on the cup-shaped part. The filaments are 3–4 mm long. The fruits are approximately 6 × 5 mm long including a "beak". They are ferruginous pubescent distally and on the beak. ''Terminalia pendula'' flowers between February and March in Bangladesh and Thailand.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from1=Q90612112, from2=Q11120322, from3=Q13073894 pendula Flora of China Flora of the Indian subcontinent Flora of Indo-China