Loranthaceae, Loranthus formicarium is now Decaisnina sumbawensis?

[Derrick]

Loranthaceae.

Decaisnina Tiegh. (Philippe Édouard Léon van Tieghem) in Bulletin de la Société botanique de France. P435 (1895) (Bull. Soc. Bot. France).

 

Decaisnina sumbawensis (Tiegh.) Barlow, (Bryan Alwyn Barlow) published in Blumea 38(1), p95, (1993) (Blumea). Basionym Amylotheca sumbawensis Tiegh.

http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=974204-1

The topical synonym is Loranthus formicarium Elmer (A. D. E. Elmer) in Loranthus from Mt Urdaneta (1913). Elmer reports that its swollen, nodose base was honeycombed after the manner of hydnophytes, yet not as elaborate, but occupied by ants. Philippines, Mindanao Island, Davao District, Todaya, (Mt. Apo).

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/777803#page/41/mode/1up.

Type description for L. formicarium in English in Leaflets of Philippine Botany, "Loranthus in the vicinity of Mt Apo," Vol 3, p1069, (1911) where Elmer notes bases to 20 cm (8") thick, and that it is not the only species with honeycombed ant inhabited tubers. Habitat on limbs of large forest trees at 914 m. (3,000 ft.) near Mt Apo (Mt Urdaneta?).

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/6762#page/307/mode/1up.

Type specimen http://www.herbarien.uzh.ch/static/database/details_en.php?&spTypFlg=&spBarCod=Z-000027645&spHer=Z

Here an Isotype of L. formicarum (sic) is now referred to Decaisnina sumbawensis,

http://collections.si.edu/search/record/nmnhbotany_2077271.

Other Synonyms http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2758594.

And here http://www.philippineplants.org/Families/Loranthaceae.html.

Tropicos lists as L. formicarum, http://www.tropicos.org/Image/39307.

As Amylotheca formicaria with more collection records at altitudes of 12- 1000 m.

http://www.parasiticplants.siu.edu/Loranthaceae/Danser1935PhilLorOCR.pdf

 

 

[Derrick]

http://www.parasiticplants.siu.edu/

http://www.parasiticplants.siu.edu/Loranthaceae/index.html

[Aurélien]

This plant is certainly Decaisnina sumbawensis. Before Derrick's post, I suspect it to be Amyema beccarii.

 

 

 

I've seen it at Sulawesi last autumn, as a parasitic plant just near Hydnophytum, Lecanopteris and Dischidia. Many birds visit their flowers.