黑毛丹

植物簡介

It is a tree, usually less than 10 m tall, but can sometimes reach up to 36 m tall in its habitat. The trunk can reach up to 60 cm diameter and the buttress can reach up to 2.4 m tall. Leaves are compound, paripinnate and spirally arranged. The leaf stalk (petiole) is 0.7 – 11.5 cm long. Each leaf comprises of 1 – 7 leaflets. They are elliptic (4 – 20 cm long and 1.7 – 11 cm wide) and thinly leathery to thinly papery. Both the leaflet base and tip are variable. The base can be blunt, rounded or narrow (attenuate) while leaflet tip can be short, broad to obtuse. The upper surface of the leaflet can be glabrous or presence of short hairs (puberulous) on the midrib. The underside can be glabrous or covered with minutely silky hairs. The domatia are usually present and can be scarce or absent. Inflorescence occur as a long spike (thyrsoid) at the axillary or partly together pseudo terminal position. The inflorescence comprises of many small light green flowers. The flowers are fragrant and they have no petals and 5 – 8 stamens each. The fruit is ellipsoid to subglobular (4 – 6.5 cm long and 2.5 – 5 cm wide) and covered with coarse spine which can reach up to 1.5 cm high. The spines are bulbous-based and often merging at the base or sometimes knobby with short tongue-shaped appendages. It is fleshy and turns purple-red when ripe. The seed is surrounded with a thick, white and sweet-tasting sarcostesta.