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Antidesma

(Genus)

Overview

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Antidesma is a plant genus of about 170 species from the family Phyllanthaceae. It consists of shrubs or trees, up to 30 m, growing in evergreen forests. They occur in the Old World Tropics and mainly in Southeast Asia, but also in tropical Australia, Africa and the Pacific Islands. There are 18 species and five varieties of Antidesma endemic to Thailand.

Synonymy

The genus Antidesma is also known as several other names:

Description

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The evergreen (sometimes deciduous) simple leaves have fine hairs and show no glands. They grow in an alternate arrangement, with entire, symmetrical blades. They are connected to the stem with a petiole (= leaf stalk) and stipules (= appendage at the base of a leaf stalk).

The flowers grow in a raceme, with 1 bract per flower, on a short pedicel (tiny stalk, supporting a single flower). Their color is light yellowish green, but may turn red when mature. These plants are dioecious, i.e. unisexual, with male and female flowers on separate plants. There are 3 to 8 fused sepals, but no petals. The male flowers have 2 to 8 stamens, but no pistils. The female flowers have 2 to 6 stigmas. They have a 1-locular ovary with 2 ovules.

The globose to ellipsoid fruits resemble a drupe. Their color varies from green to white, red and black. The fleshy and juicy fruits are edible with a sour to bitter sweet taste.

Species

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Here is a list of Antidesma species, with each species's distribution in parentheses:

Bignay
Hama (Antidesma platyphyllum) - ripe berries
Hama (Antidesma platyphyllum) - unripe fruits

Photos

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Taxonomy

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The Genus Antidesma is further organized into finer groupings including:

References

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Sources

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Last Revised: November 20, 2008