A Manilkara Found on Oahu, Hawaii 
Marie C. Neal 1 
Among his studies of the Sapotaceae, Dr, 
H. J. Lam has made at least two references 
to a species of Manilkara found on Oahu, 
Hawaii. In one reference ( Buitenzorg ]ard. 
Bot. Bui, Ser. Ill, 7: 241, 1925) he pub¬ 
lished the description of it as a new species, 
M. emarginata H. J. Lam, without illustra¬ 
tion. In another reference ( Blumea , 4: 342, 
1941) he repeated the description, includ¬ 
ing it with descriptions of 14 other species, 
and listing it as one of three incompletely 
known, as flowers were lacking. In the first 
reference, Dr. Lam states: ”1 discovered in 
the collections of the Buitenzorg Herbarium 
a specimen from Oahu, Sandwich Islands, 
which seems to belong to this genus \Manil- 
kara'] and seems worthy to be described 
here.” The type specimen was in fruit, and 
it was collected by H. M. Curran, a forester 
of Manila, in April, 1911. But contrary to 
Dr. Lam’s belief, this specimen evidently 
was not collected from a native.tree of Oahu, 
but was probably taken from an introduced, 
cultivated tree in a public garden on Oahu 
that is noted for its varied collection of in¬ 
troduced trees. No native species of Manil¬ 
kara is known in Hawaii. 
Recently I rediscovered this species, and 
very likely the same tree, in Foster Gardens, 
Honolulu, Oahu, on February 11, 1947, 
when it was bearing both flowers and fruit. 
It was called to my attention by Mr. Gordon 
Pearsall, who wished to have it identified. 
It is a single tree, seemingly the original in¬ 
troduction and only specimen in Hawaii. It 
is about 8 meters high, with a spread of 15 
meters at the crown; the diameter of the 
trunk is about 50 cm. near the base, where 
a few large branches rise at angles of about 
1 Botanist, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Hono¬ 
lulu. Manuscript received April 9, 1947. 
45°. The bark of trunk and lower branches 
is gray and rough, and is deeply and regu¬ 
larly furrowed. The upper branches are 
nearly smooth and bear numerous branch- 
lets or twigs. As each twig tip bears a clus¬ 
ter of leaves about 5 to 15 cm. long, the leafy 
canopy is dense. The leaves are shiny, dull 
green above, lighter beneath, oval to obovate, 
emarginate. The sap of the tree is milky. The 
comparatively thick, yellowish, white-milky 
pulp of the small, brown, one-seeded fruit 
has a pleasing sweetish flavor. 
So far as leaves and fruit are concerned, 
the only parts of the tree available to Lam, 
this tree fits well into his description of M. 
emarginata. As many of the plants in Foster 
Gardens were brought from different parts 
of the world, especially from the Far East, 
Malaya, and Malaysia, and records were not 
always preserved, it has not been possible to 
locate the home of each plant. As this 
Manilkara is well grown, it may have been 
collected as a seed in 1865-1866 by the 
botanist Dr. William Hillebrand, who at 
that time collected plants in and near Hong 
Kong and in Java. Or it may have been 
brought by some later collector. 
The genus includes about 74 species, ac¬ 
cording to Dr. Lam, known from Central 
America, Africa, Asia, and islands of the 
Pacific. M. emarginata is said by Lam to be 
related, apparently, to M. kauki (L.) Dub., 
the distribution of which is southeastern 
Asia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and north¬ 
ern Australia. But analysis of the flowers in¬ 
dicates a much closer relationship to M. hex- 
andra (Roxb.) Dub., distributed in central 
India, Ceylon, Siam, Indo-China, and 
Hainan. The possibility is thus suggested 
that one or more of these regions is the home 
of M. emarginata. In fact, the descriptions 
243 
