Ceriscoides curranii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ceriscoides curranii (Merr.) Tirveng.

Protologue: Nordic Journ. Bot. 3(4): 456 (1983).

Family: Rubiaceae

Chromosome number: 2n= unknown

Synonyms

Randia aculeata Blanco (1837) non L., Gardenia curranii Merr. (1918).

Vernacular names

• Philippines: malarayap, malasampaga, sinasampaga (Tagalog).

Origin and geographic distribution

C. curranii is endemic to Luzon in the Philippines.

Uses

The fruit may serve as an effective fish poison in the Philippines.

Properties

The ichthyotoxic activity of the fruits is probably due to the presence of saponins, comparable to the more or less related Catunaregam spinosa (Thunberg) Tirveng.

Botany

A small dioecious tree of c. 4 m tall, with straight stem, young branches with numerous paired thorns. Leaves opposite or fasciculate at tips of short shoots, simple and entire, lanceolate, glabrous, obtuse at apex, sessile; stipules triangular, deciduous. Flowers terminal on short shoots, unisexual, 5(-6)-merous, fragrant, female ones solitary or in pairs; calyx toothed; corolla gamopetalous, tube inflated in the middle, lobes large, twisted; stamens inserted on the corolla tube; ovary inferior, 1-celled, style with bifid stigma. Fruit indehiscent, many-seeded. Seeds small.

Ceriscoides is a small genus of 6 species: 4 in mainland South-East Asia, 1 in Java and 1 in the Philippines. It seems most closely related to Gardenia , which also has a 1-celled ovary but differs particularly in its unarmed habit and larger, bisexual flowers. Catunaregam is similarly thorned but differs in its 2-celled ovary.

Ecology

C. curranii is an uncommon component of thickets and forest at low altitude.

Genetic resources

C. curranii has a very limited distribution in the Philippines and is apparently uncommon there. It would therefore seem liable to genetic erosion or even extinction.

Prospects

Extremely little is known about C. curranii , not only its chemistry and properties, but also its botany, exact distribution and affinity.

Literature

121, 621.

Other selected sources

930, 931.

Main genus page

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Authors

R.H.M.J. Lemmens