Tetrameles

Tetrameles
The famous tree growing in the Ta Prohm temple ruins in Cambodia is Tetrameles nudiflora
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Cucurbitales
Family: Tetramelaceae
Genus: Tetrameles
R.Br.
Species: T. nudiflora
Binomial name
Tetrameles nudiflora
R.Br.

Tetrameles is a genus of flowering plants in the family Tetramelaceae with one species, Tetrameles nudiflora. It grows as a large deciduous tree and is found across southern Asia from India through southeast Asia, Malesia, and into northern Australia.

Description

Tetrameles nudiflora grows as a large tree to 20 m (70 ft) high with a spread of 10 m (35 ft).[1] The trunk is buttressed,[2] and the bark is grey and often shiny. The tree often contains large hollows in the trunk or branches. It is deciduous, bare of leaves between October and December in Australia.[3]

Many specimens have grown to immense proportions of height and width. In Vietnam, a number of fine specimens are shown to visitors in Cat Tien National Park – one within walking distance of the park headquarters.

Taxonomy

Robert Brown described Tetrameles nudiflora in 1844, from material collected in Java.[3] Its species name is derived from the Ancient Greek tetra "four" and melos "part", and refers to the flower having four sepals. The species name is from the Latin nudiflora "bare flowers".[1] It is the only species in its genus Tetrameles.[2] It and Octomeles sumatrana are the only two species in the family Tetramelaceae. They were previously classified in the Datiscaceae but found genetically to not form a natural clade with the other members of that family.[4]

Distribution and habitat

Tetrameles nudiflora is found from India and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and into the Cape York Peninsula in north Queensland (Australia).[2]

In India, these trees can be found in particularly large numbers in the Thattekad Bird Sanctuary, Kerala.

University of Yangon

Uses and cultivation

Its large size means that Tetrameles nudiflora is suited to parks and large spaces rather than private gardens.[1] In Myanmar, an old, around 200-foot-tall one can be found in Yangon, at the University of Yangon campus.

Despite its timber being soft, it is used in New Guinea to make canoes.[1]

Vernacular names

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Elliot, Rodger W.; Jones, David L.; Blake, Trevor (2010). Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants Suitable for Cultivation: Volume 9 – Sp-Z. Port Melbourne: Lothian Press. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-7344-0974-4.
  2. 1 2 3 "Tetrameles". Flora of China.
  3. 1 2 Hyland, B. P. M.; Whiffin, T.; Zich, F. A.; et al. (Dec 2010). "Factsheet – Tetrameles". Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants. Edition 6.1, online version [RFK 6.1]. Cairns, Australia: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), through its Division of Plant Industry; the Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research; the Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook University. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  4. ↑ "Phylogenetic relationships in the order Cucurbitales and a new classification of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae)" (PDF). Taxon. 60 (1): 122–38. 2011.

Further reading

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