Aspidostemon scintillans (Kosterm.) Rohwer

Werff, Henk Van Der, 2006, A revision of the Malagasy endemic genus Aspidostemon Rohwer & Richter (Lauraceae), Adansonia (3) 28 (1), pp. 7-44 : 43

Aspidostemon scintillans (Kosterm.) Rohwer

Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 109: 78 (1987) . — Cryptocarya scintillans Kosterm., Notulae Systematicae (Paris) 8: 113 (1939). — Type: Madagascar, Massif de l’Ikongo , [23°00’30”S, 47°32’30”E], 17.X.1926, fr., Decary 5713 (holo-, P; iso-, P).

REMARKS

The type has a detached fruit. The fruit is globose and shows no trace of persistent floral parts, whereas Aspidostemon fruits are ellipsoid and have persistent floral parts on top of the fruits. The coriaceous leaves with their raised, fine reticulation, the black young twigs, the fruit shape and the absence of persistent floral parts on the fruit all fit better in Beilschmiedia than in Aspidostemon . An investigation of the cuticle characters indicate that A. scintillans lacks the bat-shaped and ring-rimmed stomata found in other Aspidostemon species and that it shares cuticle features with the opposite-leaved species of Beilschmiedia (S. Nishida pers. comm.).