A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

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A FLORA OF MANILA
70. SIMARUBACEAE (Quassia Family)
Trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing, with usually bitter bark, and alternate,
pinnate, leaves. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, racemose,
cymose, or paniculate. Flowers regular. Calyx 3- to 5-lobed. Petals 3
to 5, hypogynous. Disk annular or elongated, rarely none. Stamens as
many as, or twice as many as, the petals, free. Ovary superior, free,
1- to 6-celled, entire or deeply lobed; ovules 1 or few in each cell; styles
free or more or less united. Fruit drupaceous or capsular; seeds usually
solitary.
Genera 32, species about 130, tropical and subtropical regions in both
hemispheres, 8 genera and about 12 species in the Philippines.
Somewhat climbing, armed with short spines; petioles not winged; flowers
small, white 1. Harrisonia
Erect, unarmed; petioles and leaf-rachis winged; flowers large, red.
1. HARRISONIA R. Brown
2. Quassia
Erect or somewhat climbing, spiny, glabrous or pubescent shrubs.
Leaves odd-pinnate. Flowers perfect, racemose or cymose. Calyx small,
4- or 5-fid. Petals 4 to 5, longer than the calyx. Stamens twice as many
as the petals, the filaments with small scales at the base; ovary globose,
4- or 5-lobed, 4- or 5-celled; ovules solitary. Fruit berry-like, fleshy, glo-
bose. (In honor of J. Harrison, an English horticulturist.)
Species 3 or 4, tropical Africa and Asia through Malaya to Australia,
2 in the Philippines.
1. H. perforata (Blanco) Merr. (H. paucijuga Benn.). Asimao, Laiya,
Mamiquil (Tag.).
Somewhat climbing or nearly erect, 2 to 4 m high, the branches armed
with short sharp spines. Leaves 5 to 10 cm long, slightly pubescent or
nearly glabrous; leaflets oblong-ovate, 1.5 to 3.5 cm long, entire or crenate,
acute or obtuse. Racemes 3 to 5 cm long, terminal. Flowers white; petals
about 6 mm long; filaments villous at the base. Fruit globose, fleshy,
glabrous, 1 to 1.5 cm in diameter. (Fl. Filip. pi 23 Fagara piperita.)
In dry thickets near Fort McKinley, fl. Apr.-June; of local occurrence
in the Philippines. India to China and Malaya.
2. QUASSIA Linnaeus
A glabrous erect shrub, intensely bitter. Leaves alternate, odd-pinnate,
the petiole and rachis winged. Flowers large, perfect, in terminal simple
racemes or panicles. Calyx small, 5-partite. Petals 5, elongated, erect,
not spreading. Stamens 10, inserted at the base of the large columnar
torus. Ovary 5-lobed. Drupes 5 or fewer, spreading. (Named after
Quassi, or Coissi, a negro slave in Surinam who used the plant for
medicine.)
A monotypic genus of tropical America.
1. Q. AMARA L. Corales (Sp.-Fil.) ; Quassia.
A glabrous shrub 2 to 3.5 m high. Leaves alternate, about 20 cm long,
the petiole and rachis broadly winged; leaflets 5, sessile, elliptic-oblong.