''Trilepisium'', the urnfigs or false-figs, is a small

Afrotropical The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...

genus 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 ...

s in family

Moraceae Moraceae is a family of flowering plants comprising about 48 genera and over 1100 species, and is commonly known as the mulberry or fig family. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however, their ...

. They grow to medium-sized or large trees that occur in evergreen and semi-deciduous forests, flooded forests or forest patches and often along rivers and streams, and at elevations of up to 2,000 m and over.

Description

The bole may be 60 cm wide, and is often fluted at the base. The smooth, grey bark is very

lenticellate 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 ...

and exudes a cream-coloured latex when damaged. The yellowish to pinkish slash turns purple-red as it dries. They usually branch high up to form a small and loosely pyramidal crown with drooping twigs. Stipules of terminal buds eventually leave annular scars. The glossy and very dark elliptic leaves have a prominent driptip, and measure up to 14 cm long. They are glossy below, and have two small lobes at the base. The flowers appear in spring and are arranged in a whitish to mauve puff. The puff is about 1 cm in diameter, and consists of

staminate 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 ...

male flowers and

pistillate 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 of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ...

female flowers, without

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower. It is a structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepal ...

s, which obscure the view of the receptacle. The flowers protrude from the open apex of an

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape ...

-shaped receptacle which is about 1.5 cm long. The fig-like fruit, embedded in the fleshy receptacles, are some 2 cm long. They are ellipsoidal in shape and hold a nutlet each. Ripe fruit have the appearance of blue plums.

Species

The two species are distinguished on floral characteristics: * '' Trilepisium gymnandrum'' (Baker) J.Gerlach –

Silhouette Island Silhouette Island lies northwest of Mahé, Seychelles, Mahé in the Seychelles. It is the third largest Granitic Seychelles, granitic island in the Seychelles. It has an area of 20.1 km2 and has a population of 200, mostly workers on the ...

, Seychelles * '' Trilepisium madagascariense'' DC. –

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n mainland,

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and

Annobón Annobón (; ) is a province of Equatorial Guinea. The province consists of the island of Annobón and its associated islets in the Gulf of Guinea. Annobón is the smallest province of Equatorial Guinea in both area and population. According t ...

island

Uses and species associations

The wood of ''T. madagascariense'' is suitable for furniture, and the sap yields a red dye. Its roasted seeds are eaten and it is sometimes cultivated. A methanol extract, fractions and isoliquiritigenin from ''T. madagascariense'' stem bark has been shown to possess antidiarrheal activities, and previously unknown trilepisflavan and trilepisuimic acid compounds were isolated from it in 2012. ''Trilepisium madagascariense'' is a larval foodplant for the butterfly '' Cyrestis camillus sublineata''. On the Seychelles the seeds are likely dispersed by frugivorous birds and fruit bats, but the pollinators are unknown.

References

{{Moraceae genera Moraceae genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Flora of the Afrotropical realm Taxa named by Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars