Sphaerocoryne Scheff. Ex Ridl., J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 75: 8, 1917

Couvreur, Thomas L. P., Dagallier, Leo-Paul M. J., Crozier, Francoise, Ghogue, Jean-Paul, Hoekstra, Paul H., Kamdem, Narcisse G., Johnson, David M., Murray, Nancy A. & Sonke, Bonaventure, 2022, Flora of Cameroon - Annonaceae Vol 45, PhytoKeys 207, pp. 1-532 : 320

Sphaerocoryne Scheff. Ex Ridl., J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 75: 8, 1917

Type species.

Polyalthia siamensis Boerl. (= Sphaerocoryne affinis (Teijsm. & Binn.) Ridl.).

Description.

Same as species.

A genus with four species having a disjunct distribution between Africa and South East Asia. Two species are known from Africa, one ( S. gracilipes ) in Central Africa (Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea) and one ( S. gracilis ) in East Africa ( Verdcourt 1971a). In Cameroon one species, not endemic.

The Central African species was initially placed within Friesodielsia ( F. gracilipes (Benth.) Steenis) ( Le Thomas 1969b), but a recent molecular phylogeny of Friesodielsia , Monanthotaxis and associated liana genera showed that this species clusters with Sphaerocoryne ( Guo et al. 2017b). Other African species of Friesodielsia have been transferred to Monanthotaxis and Afroguatteria , and thus the genus Friesodielsia does not occur in Africa anymore, being strictly South East Asian.