atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

crowded near the ends of branches; peduncles and pedicels, yellowish-green, pubescent;
flowers, bisexual, somewhat fragrant, subtended by lanceolate deciduous hairy brown
bracts, 4 mm long; the perianth of 6 tepals, 10 to 15 mm in diameter, greenish to
yellowish white, short-pedicellate; stamens 9, in 3 whorls, the staminodes, conspicuous,
orange to brown; pedicels cylindric or enlarged and fleshy when in fruit; fruit, 7 to 25
cm long and 5 to 12 cm in diameter, subglobose to pear-shaped (pyriform) fleshy, 1-
seeded drupe, skin light-green to purplish, flesh light-green to yellow-green, of butter-
like consistency, edible; seed, single, subglobose, up to 5 cm in diameter, with 2 brown
seed coats and 2 fleshy, whitish or pink cotyledons. Seedling planted in garden at
Meneng Terrace. 5.
LECY THIDACEAE (Brazilnut Family)
Barringtonia asiatica (L.) Kurz "fish-poison tree", "barringtonia"
kwenbabai, kwenababai, eijinut (B)(N); te baireati (K); futu (T)
syns. Mammea asiatica L. ; Barrin.gtnnia speciosa Forst. ; B. butonica Forst.
Indigenous. Indo-Pacific. Occasional. Large, spreading, round-crowned tree, 10 to
20 m high, with gray bark and rather stout branches; leaves, 15 to 50 cm long and 8 to
24 cm wide, alternate, clustered toward the ends of branches, obovate or oblong-obovate,
obtuse or slightly emarginate, base cuneate, subcoriaceous, glabrous, glossy-green,
subsessile; petioles, 1 to 5 cm long; inflorescences, terminal more or less erect racemes,
2 to 15 cm long and 15 cm broad; pedicels, 2 to 9 cm long; calyx, 2-lobed, sepals, 2 to
4 by 2 to 3 cm, concave, obtuse, persistent on fruit; corolla, 4-parted, sweetly fragrant,
petals, about 4 to 8 cm long and 2.5 to 4.5 cm wide at anthesis, elliptic to ovate, white,
early deciduous; stamens numerous, 4 to 12 cm long, white at base, pink- or red-tinged
distally, anthers yellow; style, 6 to 15 cm long, white at base, pink- or red-tinged
distally; fruit, 8 to 12 cm long and broad, 4-angled, l-seeded, pyramidal or subturbinate,
exterior fibrous, crowned by calyx (2 large persistent sepals), pendent and heavy when
ripe, buoyant; seed, 4 to 5 cm long and 2.5 to 4 cm wide, ovoid or ellipsoid. Spontaneous
or planted on coastal strip, often in home gardens; larger concentrations on
escarpment leading to plateau above Anibare Bay. Wood a favoured timber and fuelwood
for cooking toddy syrup (karn~~c~rara); fruit possibly used to poison fish in the past.
Fruit commonly used as a fish poison or stupefacient elsewhere in the Pacific. 1(48.R),
2, 3(58665), 5(36), 6, 7.