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Flora Malesiana Flora Malesiana
Published by the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland, Universiteit Leiden branch
634 pp., 94 drawings, 9 colour photographs, 6 maps
ISBN 90-71236-47-1
Paperback
Price: NLG 150.00 or EUR 68.00
Myristicaceae, the Nutmeg family, is a medium-sized pantropical family, well represented with six genera and about 350 species in Southeast Asia. In the Malesian area there occur altogether 335 species: Endocomia (4 species), Gymnacranthera (6), Horsfieldia (97), Knema (75), Myristica (152), and Paramyristica (1). Some are of economic importance, of which the nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) is the most famous.
The trees generally can be found in all types of primary forest, most of them in lowland rain forest, and are readily recognisable by their characteristic architecture. The heavy seeds are short-lived, but may be dispersed by larger birds, for instance hornbills in West Malesia and big pigeons in New Guinea. Especially New Guinea is rich in en-demic Myristica species. Practically all species are threatened by the ongoing forest destruction.
Flora Malesiana Series I, Volume 14 contains an up-to-date overview of this ancient dioecious family, fully treating the Malesian species, of which many are illustrated by line drawings of habit and morphological details, often full-page. Since the species are notoriously difficult to recognise, both general and regional keys have been given, separately for male flowering as well as fruiting specimens. For many species relationships to other species are discussed.
In addition to a general morphological introduction, specialists provide information on leaf and wood anatomy (Baas, Koster), palynology (Van der Ham), and phytochemistry and chemotaxonomy (Hegnauer). An index to scientific plant names is given.
This volume of Flora Malesiana is the only comprehensive treatise of this important rain forest family in Southeast Asia
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Last modified april 07, 2003 by P. Hovenkamp