1321

12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2

Tabernaemontana aurantiaca Gaud.

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Tabernaemontana in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

in Freycinet, Voy. Uranie: 50, 55 (1826).

Tabernaemontana novoguineesis Scheff. (1876).

From the Moluccas (Seram) eastward throughout New Guinea to Vanuatu.

In Bougainville Island and Solomon Islands, plant sap mixed with coconut oil is employed as a vesicant.

A tree or less often a shrub, 3—15 m tall; trunk 5—30 cm in diameter; leaves of a pair equal or unequal, elliptical or obovate, 5—33 cm x 3—15.5 cm, 1.5—3.5 times longer than wide, apex apiculate or acuminate, petiole 8—45 mm long, ocrea not widened into intrapetiolar stipules; inflorescence rather lax, few-flowered, 8—20 cm x 3—11 cm; flowers sweet-scented, open during the night, sepals pale green, corolla in mature bud 21—28 mm long with a wide ovoid head for 20—30% of the length, apex blunt or acute, tube 5—10 times longer than the calyx, 12—24 mm long, not twisted; fruit consisting of 1—2 separate mericarps, variably shaped, orange or red, 10—20-seeded, aril white. Tabernaemontana aurantiaca is found in coastal flood plains, periodically inundated riverine and swamp forest and occasionally on limestone, from sea-level up to 125 m altitude. It flowers and fruits simultaneously throughout the year.

L.S.L. Chua & S.F.A.J. Horsten

Chua, L.S.L & Horsten, S.F.A.J., 2001. Tabernaemontana aurantiaca Gaud.. In: van Valkenburg, J.L.C.H. and Bunyapraphatsara, N. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea