Tuesday 20 January 2009

Sideroxylon spinosum




Sideroxylon spinosum L. Species Plantarum 1: 193. 1753

SAPOTACEAE

Argania sideroxylon Roem. & Schult
Systema Vegetabilium 4: xlvi, 502. 1819. nom. illeg. superfl

nom. illeg. superfl. – A superfluous name; a name for which a validly published name existed previously and should have been adopted, thus the name is deemed nomenclaturally superfluous.

Alph. De Cand. Prodr. v. 8. p. 187 Walp. Repert. v. 6 p. 455. De Noé in Revue Horticole, 1853, p. 125

There are two homonyms to this combination
Sideroxylon spinosum Duhamel Arb. 2: 260. 1755. nom. illeg. hom. Sideroxylon spinosum Willd. Species Plantarum. Editio quarta 1: 1091. 1797. nom. illeg. hom.

Sideroxylon spinosum, Linn. Hort. Cliff, p. 69. (excl. syn. et local.)
Sideroxylon spinosum Correa in Annales du Mm. d'Hist. Nat. v. 8. p. 393, cum Ic.fruct.
Rhamnus Siculus, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12. v. 3. p. 227. (excl. syn.) non Bocc.
Rhamnus pentaphyllus, Linn. Syst. Nat.ed. Gmel.p. 398. (fid. Dryand.), excl. syn. Bocc. Elaeodendron Argan, Retz, Obs. Sot. v. 6. p. 26. Wittd. Sp. PI. v. 1. p. 1148. (excl. syn. Jacq. et Bocc.) Schousboe, Marocc.p. 89. Argan, Dryand. in Trans. Linn. Soc. v. 2. p. 225.

Habitat: Forming woods in the southern and western regions of the kingdom of Marocco, principally of Haka and south of Mogador.

Description: This appears to form a low spreading tree or shrub, varying in size according to locality; probably rarely, if ever, exceeding 16-18 feet in height, but with a diameter of trunk large in proportion to the height. Recently imported living plants, now before me, though not more than a foot or a foot and a half high, have the appearance of considerable age, from their thick trunks (thicker than one's wrist) and crooked and seemingly stunted branches; brancJies spiny : the branchlets themselves are often spinescent, like our Prunus spinosa, and there is besides, in the infant seedling plants (three or four weeks old), a sharp subulate spine, half an inch or more long, at the base of each alternate leaf; and, in the old plants, at the base of each fascicle of leaves. (Hooker)

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