Phoebe angustifolia Meisner (1864: 34)

Chakrabarty, Tapas, Kumar, Anand & Ghoshal, Partha Pratim, 2023, A revision of the genus Phoebe (Lauraceae) in the Indo-Burmese region, Phytotaxa 606 (1), pp. 29-42 : 31

1. Phoebe angustifolia Meisner (1864: 34) .

Type:— INDIA. Meghalaya, Khasia , 2–4000 feet, 2 October 1850, fr., J.D. Hooker & T. Thomson s.n. (lectotype designated here: G-DC [G00693514, mounted on two sheets], digital images!; isolectotypes: B 10 0277508, BM013718291, BR0000005187447, digital images!, CAL0000021955!, CAL0000021956!, CAL0000021957!, CGE [2 sheets] n.v., E00393296, GH00042195, K000778861, K000778862, L.1813836, L.1813837, MEL2390420, digital images!, MH00002468!, NY00355919, OXF00146561N n.v., P02009394, P02009399, P02009401, S-G-4800, U0002991, digital images!) .

Shrubs or trees, 3–5 m high, bud scale scars in dense rings around twigs; branchlets glabrous. Leaves more or less clustered at the ends of the twigs or evenly spaced, linear-lanceolate, 9–28 × 0.8–3.5 cm, attenuate at base and decurrent into petioles, flat or often slightly curved downwards along margins, caudate-acuminate (acumen 10–30 mm long) at apex, coriaceous, glabrous, greenish to brown, blackish or dark reddish brown above when dry, greenish to brown or dark reddish brown beneath, not glaucous; lateral veins 10–18 pairs, faint to prominent on both surfaces; tertiary veins obscure to faint above, faint to prominent beneath; veinlets obscure above and beneath; petioles 5–15 mm long, glabrous. Panicles few-branched towards apices, 5–20 cm long, few- many-flowered; axis and branches glabrous. Flowers: pedicels 3–5 mm long, slender to stout, glabrous; tepals broadly ovate, 2.5–3.5 × 1.2–1.8 mm, glabrous outside, puberulous inside; stamens 2–2.5 mm long; ovary subglobose, ca. 1.5 mm in diam.; style ca. 1.8 mm long. Fruits ovoid, 0.9–1.1 × 0.6–0.8 cm; fruiting pedicels 5–10 mm long, not thickened; fruiting tepals 3–5 mm long.

Phenology: —Flowering in April to June and fruiting in July to October.

Habitat: —Scattered in primary evergreen forests between 600–900 m elevations.

Distribution: — Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

Specimens examined:— CHINA. Yunnan province, 25 April 1953, fl., K.H. Cai 552 ( PE00482293 ) . INDIA. Meghalaya, Khasi hills, 26 September 1886, fr., C.B. Clarke 44529A ( CAL herb. acc. no. 385083); Meghalaya, Jowai dist., Jowai - Badarpur road, 20 July 1957, fr., G.K. Deka 10090 ( CAL, ASSAM) . MYANMAR. Chindwin, Bhamo , May–June 1911, fl., S. Toppin 3234 ( CAL) . VIETNAM. Thua-Thien province, Haut cours du Bo-Giang, s.d., fl., Eberhardt 2737 ( P02009373 ) .

Notes: — Although POWO (2023) included “ Bangladesh ” while citing the distribution of the species, no material from Bangladesh could be examined during the present studies. Moreover, Ara et al. (2007) had also not included the species in their treatment.