Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Ailanthus integrifolia Lam. subsp. integrifolia


Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flower [not vouchered]. © G. Sankowsky
Flowers [not vouchered]. © G. Sankowsky
Female flowers. © CSIRO
Female flowers. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
Family

Nooteboom, H.P. (1966) Flora Malesiana Series I 6: 218.

Common name

White Bean; WHITE SIRIS; Siris, White; Ferntop Ash; Bean, White; Ash, Ferntop

Stem

Lenticels very numerous. Orange speckled or an orange granular layer visible in the blaze. Blaze odour resembles that of green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) or peas (Pisum sativum).

Leaves

Leaf bearing twigs about 1-2 cm diam. Leaflet blades +/- falcate, about 7.5-19 x 1.7-8 cm, very unequal-sided particularly at the base. Domatia are rather inconspicuous tufts of hair. Midrib slightly raised on the upper surface of the leaflet blade. Numerous, closely packed oil dots in the leaflet visible only with a lens.

Flowers

Inflorescence up to 30 cm long. Flowers about 13-15 mm diam. Sepals about 1.5-2 x 3 mm. Petals about 6 x 2.5-3 mm, puberulous. Stamens or staminodes 10, filaments about 2 mm long, anthers about 1 mm long. Carpels five, about 2 mm long. Ovules 1 per carpel. Unisexual and hermaphroditic flowers are difficult to distinguish from one another.

Fruit

Fruits cream to pale brown in colour, texture papery, samaras about 10-12 x 2.5-3.5 cm. Main vascular bundle to the seed connected to a vein on the margin of the samara.

Seedlings

Cotyledons fleshy, without venation, about 13-14 x 11-12 mm. First pair of leaves simple, by the 5th leaf, leaves usually trifoliolate. Lateral leaflets of trifoliolate leaf very small compared to middle leaflet. At the tenth leaf stage: leaflet blade with a few hairs on both the upper and lower surfaces along the midrib. Seed germination time 17 to 24 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 300 m. Grows in gallery forest and other rain forests. Also occurs in Malesia and the Solomon Islands.

Natural History & Notes

This species has exhibited some anti-tumour activity.

Produces a pale rather soft timber.

Wood specific gravity 0.43 Cause et al. (1989).

Synonyms
Ailanthus integrifolia Lam., Encyclopedie Methodique. Botanique : 417(1789), Type: Arbor coeli sive Caju langit, Rumph. Herb Amb. 3 (1743) 205, t. 132. Ailanthus integrifolia Lam., Dict. 3: 2(1792), Type: Based on Arbor coeli sive Caju langit, Rumph. Herb. Amb. 3 (1743) 205, t. 132.
RFK Code
460
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