III. Xylopia section Stenoxylopia Engl. & Diels

Monographien Afrikanischer Pflanzen-Familien und Gattungen 6: 59 (1901). — Type: Xylopia odoratissima Welw. ex Oliv. (lecto-, designated in Stull et al. [2017: 221]).

DESCRIPTION

Nodes with branches from one to three axillary buds; outer petals lanceolate to linear, rarely ovate; inner petals lanceolate to linear, rarely ovate, fleshy basal margins absent in Malagasy species; anther connective apex shield-shaped to capitate, overhanging anther thecae; staminal cone rudimentary to well-developed, partially to completely concealing the ovaries, rim even to irregularly laciniate; carpels 3-9 in Malagasy species, the stigmas connivent, smooth; arils absent; seed coat smooth, rarely slightly papillate, pitted, or wrinkled, sarcotesta present, in Malagasy species either orange to red or light green to yellow-green. This section is represented by 34 species in tropical Africa (Johnson & Murray 2018), 23 species on Madagascar, and c. 40 species in Southeast Asia.

NOTES

Many of the sect. Stenoxylopia species from Madagascar are still imperfectly known: for example, X. carinata, sp. nov., X. ghesquiereana, and X. humbertii are unknown in fruit, and X. longirostra, sp. nov., and X. marojejyana, sp. nov., are unknown in flower. Some assignments of the Madagascar sect. Stenoxylopia species to the three subclade groups in the Phylogeny section were thus provisional. Given the tentative nature of the subclade classifications the species of the section appear alphabetically in the following account.