Pantadenia adenanthera

Pantadenia adenanthera is a shrub in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is found in parts of Southeast Asia. The species is used for its wood (high-quality house-posts, firewood) and edible fruit.

Pantadenia adenanthera
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Genus: Pantadenia
Species:
P. adenanthera
Binomial name
Pantadenia adenanthera

Description

This species grows as a perennial shrub, between 0.4 and 2m tall, branching prolifically.[1] The species can be distinguished from other Euphorbiaceae in Thailand by the following traits: the inflorescences grow opposite the leaves; petals have apical glands; and the stamens also have an apical gland.[2] Flowering occurs from July to January, fruit appear from November to March, while leafing occurs from May to April.[3]

Distribution

Growing in parts of Southeast Asia, the species is found in the following countries: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam.[4]

Habitat, ecology

In Cambodia and southern Vietnam the shrub grows in secondary formations in the plains, and along rivers.[1]

The shrub grows along the Mekong river in Kratie and Steung Treng Provinces, Cambodia.[3] It is moderately abundant in the deciduous forest with bamboo formation and in degraded areas, on soils derived from metamorphic sandstone bedrock, at 25-30m altitude.

Vernacular names

The plant is called: (voër) krâchâk ânndaëk (="turtle claw"),[1], or krâcâk[5] (Khmer) in Cambodia.

Uses

The fruit are edible, and the branches are used for firewood in Cambodia.[1]

Cambodian house-making carpenters value the hard, heavy and rot- and insect-proof, though not cheap, wood of this species as the raw material for the posts.[5] The posts are set in the ground and support the frame and floor. It is thought that the choice of quality wood will not only help the solidity of the house, but will increase the happiness of the resident family.

History

François Gagnepain (1866-1952), a long-lived and prolific French botanist described this species in the paper "Quelques genres nouveaux d'Euphorbiacées" in an issue of the Bulletin de la Société botanique de France published in 1925 (though dated 1924).[6] [7]

Further reading
  • Govaerts, R., Frodin, D.G. & Radcliffe-Smith, A. (2000). World Checklist and Bibliography of Euphorbiaceae (and Pandaceae) 1-4: 1-1622. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • van Welzen, P.C. & Chayamarit, K. (2007). Flora of Thailand 8(2): 305-592. The Forest Herbarium, National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok.

References
  1. Pauline Dy Phon (2000). Plants Utilised In Cambodia/Plantes utilisées au Cambodge. Phnom Penh: Imprimerie Olympic. pp. 14, 15.
  2. van Welzen, Peter C. (1998). "Analytical key to the genera of Thai Euphorbiaceae". Thai For. Bulletin. 26: 1–17. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  3. Maxwell, James F. (2009). "Vegetation and vascular flora of the Mekong River, Kratie and Steung Treng Provinces, Cambodia" (PDF). Maejo International Journal of Science and Technology. 3 (01): 143–211. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  4. "Pantadenia adenanthera Gagnep". Plants of the World Online (POWO). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  5. Luco, Fabienne (2006). "Les rituels associés à la construction de la maison". In Tainturier, François (ed.). Wooden Architecture Of Cambodia : A disappearing héritage (PDF). Center for Khmer Studies. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  6. "Pantadenia adenanthera Gagnep., Bull. Soc. Bot. France 71: 873 (1925)". International Plant Name Index (IPNI). The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,. Retrieved 3 February 2021.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  7. Gagnepain, F. (1924). "Quelques genres nouveaux d'Euphorbiacées". Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France. 71 (4): 864–879. doi:10.1080/00378941.1924.10836991. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
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