Crateva

Crateva religiosa

Crateva is a plant genus in the family of the caper family ( Capparaceae ). From some species the fruits are eaten or they are used as ornamental plants.

• 4.1 Notes and references

Description

Vegetative characteristics

Crateva species grow as trees or sometimes shrubs, they can be evergreen or deciduous. The plant parts have no hairs ( trichomes ). The branches are pencil -like or edged with lenticels.

The alternate arranged leaves leaves are divided into petiole and leaf blade. The long petioles have near the rachis glands. The unpaired pinnate leaf blades are composed of three leaflets. The leaflets have an initially thin later thicker stem. The Endfiederblatt has an asymmetric base. The stipules are small and triangular.

From the rolled cotyledons ( cotyledons ) is a longer and encircles the other.

Generative features

At the ends of new branches are schirmtraubige, racemose inflorescences, with terminated growth or after flowering, the rachis continues to grow at a leafy branch. On the rachis remain after dropping the flowers significantly scars. The flowers are each about long flower stems on a cover sheet.

The most hermaphrodite or unisexual flowers are more or less radial symmetry and fourfold with double perianth. Four same greenish sepals are provided which are much smaller than the petals. The four white, off-white to yellow petals are equal, keeled, ovate to rhomboid with four lateral nerves on each side of the main nerve. Often are rare to eight, usually twelve to fifty stamens present, with long stamens that are fused at the base 1-4 mm long. It is formed a 2-8 cm long Gynophor. Conjoined stamens and Gynophor together give a Androgynophor. There are two to twelve carpels present. The unilocular ovary is upper constant. There are many ovules available. It is a nectary present. It is at most a short style available. The inconspicuous scars are button-shaped.

There are pendulous, spherical formed on stems to ellipsoidal berries, which contain 25 to 50 seeds. The leathery pericarp dries gray, red, purple or brown, and above is smooth or papillose. The seeds are embedded in a creamy above or pungent mesocarp. The seed coats are smooth. The seeds contain a straight embryo.

Systematics and distribution

The eight species have a worldwide distribution in the tropics and subtropics. Furthermore, their area stretches north to southern Japan and in Asia south to northern Argentina in the Americas. In China, there are five types.

The genus name Crateva was first published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum, 1, p 444. Type species is Crateva tapia L. Synonyms for Crateva L. are: . Belou Adans, Crataeva L., Nevosmila Raf, Othrys Noronha ex Du Petit - Thouars, Tapia Mill, Triclanthera Raf.. .

There are about eight species Crateva

• Crateva adansonii DC. It is native to tropical Africa.
• Crateva formosensis ( Jacobs) BSSun: It grows in the valleys, on the banks of rivers, in dense forests, orchards, in coastal thickets at altitudes near sea level to 400 meters in the northern Guangdong, northeastern Guangxi, Taiwan, southern Japan ( only on the Ryukyu Islands).
• Crateva religiosa G.Forst. Especially in low altitudes it comes in Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, in the Philippines and on the Pacific Islands.
• Crateva speciosa Volkens: It is native to the Pacific Islands.
• Crateva tapia L.: It is distributed throughout Central and South America, most often it occurs in the Atlantic coastal rain forest. In Brazil it is called Trapia.
• Crateva trifoliata ( Roxburgh ) BSSun: It is native to Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, southern Taiwan and the Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan.
• Crateva unilocularis Buchanan - Hamilton: It is Bangladesh India, Bhutan, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and the Chinese provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan boasts.

Use

In India, the young fruits are eaten by Crateva magna and leaves and root bark used in folk medicine. For example, due to the fragrant flowers Crateva religiosa is used in China and other countries in southern and southeast Asia as an ornamental plant. In Chinese medicine, the dried fruits are used. The fruits of Crateva tapia be eaten by people and being eaten by animals or fish.

Swell

• Zhang Mingli & Gordon C. Tucker: Capparaceae in the Flora of China, Volume 7, 2008, 433: Crateva - Online. (Section Description, distribution, use and systematics)