Vasilis Teodoridis:
Sterculiaceae | Pterygota
1. Pterygota alata (Roxburgh) R. Brown; Pterocymbium. 234. Ju. 1844.
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Sterculia alata Roxburgh; Pl. Coromandel 3: 84. 1811 [1819]; Pterygota roxburghii Schott & Endlicher; nom. illeg. superfl.
Big trees; up to 30 m tall; bark gray or brown-gray. Branchlets pubescent at first with golden yellow hairs. Stipules subulate; caducous; petiole 5-15 cm; leaf blade cordate or broadly ovate; 13-35 x 10-17 cm; both surfaces glabrescent; base truncate; cordate or rounded; margin nearly entire; apex acute or obtuse. Inflorescence axillary; paniculate; shorter than petiole. Flowers sparse; red; pedicels nearly absent. Calyx campanulate; 17-20 mm; lobes linear-lanceolate; densely puberu-lent. Male flowers: androgynophore cylindric cone-shaped; 1/2 as long as calyx; puberulent. Anthers ca. 20; 3-5 grouped into fascicles on top of androgynophore; undeveloped carpels apparent. Female flowers: androgynophore very short. Ovary globose and puberulent; ovules 40-50 per carpel; in 3 rows; styles 5; curved; pubescent. Follicle woody; compressed globose; ca. 12 cm in diam.; puberulent outside; adaxially corklike. Seeds many; oblong; flat; ca. 7 cm including long and wide wing. Fr. Dec.
Open forests. S Hainan;Yunnan [Bangladesh; Bhutan; India; Malaysia; Myanmar; Philippines; Thailand; Vietnam].
The place of publication of Pterygota alata is often given as R. Brown in Bennett; Pl. Jav. Rar. 234. 1844; which was published in November 1844 and was thus predated by Brown’s preprint published in June of the same year.