Gmelina asiatica L., Verbenaceae

Click on an image for links to BIGGER PICTURES

Present on Pacific Islands?  no

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results: 

Reject, score: 14 (Go to the risk assessment (Australia)).
High risk, score 13 (Go to the risk assessment (Pacific)).

Common name(s): [more details]

Chinese: ya zhou shi zi

English: Asiatic beechberry, badhara bush, oval-leafed gmelina

Palauan: kalngebang

Habit:  shrub

Description:  "A large straggling or scrambling deciduous bush or shrub, rather hardy, to about 3 m tall, or rarely a semi-evergreen tree to 8 m tall, sometimes prostrate, usually spiny, sometimes unarmed, much-branched, with basitonic branching, very variable in size and habit; bark yellowish- or brownish-white, thin, smooth; wood hard, grey; branchlets horizontal, rigid, often compressed, puberulous or even villosulous when young; twigs frequently much abbreviated and apically spinose, these axillary spines sometimes leaf-bearing; leaves small; petioles 0.5-3 cm long, slender; leaf-blades membranous or chartaceous, varying from oval or ovate to elliptic, obovate, subrhomboid, or triangular in outline, very variable, mostly 1-9.5 (rarely to 13) cm long, 1.5-6 cm wide, entire or 3-5 lobed when young and on turions, basally mostly acute to cuneate, sometimes rounded, apically acute or obtuse, glabrous on both surfaces when mature, often more or less pubescent when young, dark and shiny above, pale green, glaucescent, and minutely white-glanduliferous beneath, the glands round; inflorescences axillary and terminal, nodding or pendulous, appressed-tomentose; bracts usually rather small, linear or lanceolate, cuspidate, 2-3 times as long as the calyx, caducous; flowers large, borne in short cymules in mostly terminal fulvous-tomentose racemiform panicles 2.5-5 cm long, falling after dawn or as soon as picked in daylight hours; pedicels pubescent; calyx about 4 mm long, somewhat contracted apically, externally pubescent-tomentose, glanduliferous, the rim very shortly 4-toothed, the teeth acute, the glands many, large, bare, antrorse, flattened, discoid; corolla large, yellow or bright sulphur-yellow, 4-5 cm long, bilabiate, externally finely pubescent or reddish-tomentose, internally glabrous, the tube narrow and curvate below, apically ampliate into a broad ventricose throat, the limb 4-lobed, the lobes ovate, subacute, the lowest largest; fertile stamens 2; staminodes 2; drupes ovoid or obovoid-pyriform, yellow when ripe, with a watery or soapy exudate, 1.8-2.8 cm long, glabrous, 1- or 2-celled and -seeded" (Dassanayake, 1983; pp. 394-397).

Habitat/ecology:  (no habitat/ecology info known by PIER)

Propagation:  Seed. May be dispersed by fruit-eating birds.

Native range:  "A widely distributed and highly variable species found from India, Ceylon, and Bangladesh, through Burma and Thailand to Malaya and Indo-China, east to Indonesia, north to southern China, and west to Réunion and Mauritius"  (Dassanayake, 1983; pp. 394-397).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Palau Palau (main island group)	Babeldaob Island		National Tropical Botanical Garden (U.S.A. Hawaii. Kalaheo.) (1970) (voucher ID: PTBG 22444) Taxon name on voucher: Gmelina asiatica
Palau Palau (main island group)	Koror Island		Bishop Museum (Honolulu) (1966) (voucher ID: BISH 652961) Taxon name on voucher: Gmelina asiatica L.

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Cambodia Cambodia	Cambodia (Kingdom of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
China China	China (People's Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Indonesia Indonesia	Indonesia (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Malaysia Malaysia	Malaysia (country of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Singapore Singapore	Singapore (Republic of)	native	Chong, Kwek Yan/Tan, Hugh T. W./Corlett, Richard T. (2009) (p. 45) Common
Thailand Thailand	Thailand (Kingdom of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Vietnam Vietnam	Vietnam (Socialist Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)

Additional information:
Additional online information about Gmelina asiatica is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Gmelina asiatica as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Gmelina asiatica may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Bishop Museum (Honolulu). 1966. Voucher specimen #BISH 652961 (Blackburn, B.S. E 104).

Chong, Kwek Yan/Tan, Hugh T. W./Corlett, Richard T. 2009. A checklist of the total vascular plant flora of Singapore: native, naturalised and cultivated species. Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore. 273 pp.

Dassanayake, M. D., gen. ed. 1983. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Vol IV. Amerind Pub. Co., New Delhi. 532 pp.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2011. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong. 2011. Flora of China (online resource).