Alectryon

Abstract: The genus Alectryon occurs with some 30 species in E. Malesia, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa, and the Sandwich Islands. Radlkofer (in Engl., Pflanzenr. 98, 1933: 983-1002) divided the genus into six sections. As a whole these sections are mostly well recognisable, but a clear demarcation between at least some of them appears impossible. Preference is given here to a division into three or four subgenera, which seems more justified. As Mr. George K. Linney, Honolulu, is working on the Pacific representatives of this genus and as Ms. S.T. Reynolds, Brisbane, recently completed a revision of the Australian species, I restricted myself in the present paper to the Malesian taxa.

Abstract: . A new species of Alectryon Gaertn. (Sapindaceae) endemic to the Fijian archipelago is described as A. vitiensis Buerki, Lowry, Munzinger & Callm. based on morphological and molecular evidence. It can easily be distinguished from the two congeners currently known from Fiji by its smaller leaves, subsessile leaflets, apetalous flowers, and crested fruits. A phylogenetic analysis using ITS sequence data shows that the new species is closely related to two Australian endemics, A. diversifolius (F. Muell.) S. T. Reynolds and A. oleifolius (Desf.) S. T. Reynolds, but differs in having compound leaves covered with a golden indument. Moreover, the Australian taxa are associated with dry habitats, whereas the new species from Fiji is confined to evergreen humid forests. Among apetalous species (all of which belong to a well-supported clade), A. vitiensis morphologically most closely resembles the generic type, A. excelsus Gaertn., endemic to New Zealand, but they differ from one another in the type of in...

Abstract: THE GENUS Alectryon has been known in the .Hawaiian Islands by a single species, A. macrococcus Radlk. It was first collected by Hillebrand, but, though he found it on two different islands, Molokai and Oahu, he never succeeded in assembling complete material. The binomial was published in 1890, based solely on Hillebrand's incomplete collections and data . Since that time , successive , botanists, Rock, Forbes, Degener, and others, have found new localit'ies for the species; it is now known on Kauai , Oahu, Molokai, and Maui. Nevertheless, Alectryon is ,still considered a rare tree. On Kauai it was dis. covered by Gay, and by Lydgate in Olokele Valley, apparently early in the 20th century, but it has not been found there since. On Molo-" kai it is apparently extinct at the type locality, though Degener found another station only a mile or two away at Puu Makaliilii, where in 1928 there were two dying trees. On 'Maui it was known from the rich, dry forest ar .Auahi on Haleakala, where Rock in 1910 found 40 trees. Since Rock 's time this rich area has been deforested by cattle grazing. Another station was found by Forbes in Olowalu Valley, west Maui , in 1920, but no one has found Alectryon there since. On Oahu it is now known to extend, in the Waianae Mountains, from Pahole Gulch to Ekahanui Gulch, or nearly the full

Abstract: The new species Alectryon hirsutus is described from New Caledonia. It is distinguished from the only other member of the genus occurring on this southwest Pacific island, A. carinatus, by its uniformly densely hirsute indumentum (vs. glabrous or with short, appressed trichomes) as well as features of its leaves [(2–)3–5 pairs of leaflets vs. 1–2]) and fruits (9–16 × 16–28 mm vs. 5.6–13 × 5.7–10.6 mm), along with its presence in dense humid forest (vs. sclerophyllous or lowland dry forest). A preliminary conservation status of Critically Endangered [CR] is suggested following IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.