Thursday 5 March 2009

Hoary Alectryon = Terminalia canescens

From Philip Miller a later edition 1835


ALECTRYON (from allectryon, a cock in allusion to the wing of the fruit having a crest like a cock's comb).
Class 8, 1. Octandria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Sapindaceae. Sect. 2 Dodonceceae.
The Characters are,—Berry coriaceous, globose, with a crest on one side, one-celled, one-seeded, seed erect, girded by an incomplete aril at the base ; embryo spirally convolute.


1. ALECTRYON EXCELSUM (Tall Alectryon). Fruit with a crested wing at the apex. This species is a tree or shrub, the native country of which is not known.


2. ALLECTRYON CANESCENS (Hoary Alectryon). D. C. prod. 1. p. 617. fruit edged around with a wing. In this species, which is a native of New Holland, on the eastern coast, the leaves are oblong, obtuse, and clothed with prubescence.


Mr. G. Don recommends (should these plants ever be introduced to our gardens), a mixture of loam and peat, or any light soil, and for cuttings, sand under a hand glass.



From IPNI.org:

Alectryon canescens DC.
Prodromus 1 1824

"in Novae-Hollandiae or? orientali." [given by N.Byrnes, Contr. Queensland Herb. 20 (1977) 20 as "Nouvelle Hollande, cote. (Neither the collector nor the exact locality could be ascertained). (G-DC)."].



Alectryon canescens DC.
This is Terminalia canescens (DC.) Radlk. (fide S.T.Reynolds, 1985).



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well..I must ask, did De Candolle have a reputation for dodgy work?

Gerald Luckhurst said...

I don't know about that, but looks like a beautiful tree. The Terminalia I'm most familiar with is Terminalia catappa. Which I like very much - brought seeds back from São Tomé where I have been working recently. Will see if they grow in Madeira.

Anonymous said...

I find it hard to imagine how one could group an Alectryon with a Terminalia, even working with poorly preserved and incomplete material, but of course these were very early steps...good luck with T.catappa,I have no experience with cultivation. I suppose you will need a very warm niche and the driest winters possible?