Lanceleaf Vatica is a critically endangered
evergreen tree up to 12 m tall. Bark is pale grayish green, mottled,
smooth. Twig slender, grayish brown puberulous. Stipules are fugacious;
leaf-stalk about 2 cm, puberulous; leaf blade below glaucous, elliptic
to lanceshaped, 10-23 x 3-8 cm, usually narrow, thinly leathery,
midvein raised below, conspicuous above; lateral veins 10-15 pairs,
slender, raised below, prominent above, base wedge-shaped, acumen
slender. Fragrant flowers are borne fascicled in irregular lax racemes
up to 12 cm. Sepals are triangular, about 3 mm, outside densely
puberulous. Petals are strap-shaped, up to 2 mm, velvet-hairy on parts
exposed in bud. Stamens are 15; anthers ovoid-oblong; connectival
appendage exceeding anther apices, stout. Ovary ovoid, puberulous;
style stout, about as long as ovary; stigma prominent. Nut is
pink-brown, about 3 x 2.5 cm, spherical, with 3 loculicidal sutures,
becoming rugulose; fruit sepals ascending, subequal, to 10 × 8 mm,
lanceshaped, papery, bases heart-shaped. Lanceleaf Vatica is found in
evergreen valley forests, below 900 m elevation in Bhutan, NE India, NW
Myanmar.
Identification credit: Siddarth Machado
Photographed in Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, Assam.
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The flower labeled Lanceleaf Vatica is ...