Durians, Durio spp., are forest trees from Southeast Asia, noted for the remarkable fruits of some species, which are large and conspicuous, and share the unfortunate combination of a very pleasent taste and a very unpleasant smell, which often makes fruit aficionados very unpopular. Although the fruit of these trees is what makes them famous, only a few species produce an edible fruit, with the majority either producing fruit that are completely unpalatable, or that produce 'arilless' fruit, which lack any form of edible flesh, resembling the husks of Horse Chestnuts.
In a paper published in the journal Phytotaxa on 8 April 2022, Mohd Norfaizal Ghazalli of the Resource Utilisation and Agrobiodiversity Conservation Programme at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, Mohamad Hadrul Hashim of Digital Dome Photography, Muhammad Ikhwanuddin Mat-Esa of the Department of Biology at the Universiti Putra Malaysia, Ahmad Zaki Zaini of the Electron Microscopy Unit at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Mohd Masri Saranum of the Biological Control Programme at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, Salmaniza Salleh, Rosliza Jajuli, and Muhammad Shafie Md Sah, also of the Resource Utilisation and Agrobiodiversity Conservation Programme at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, and Noraini Talip and A Latiff of the Department of Biology and Biotechnology at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, describe a new species of arilless Durian from Parak State, Peninsula Malaysia.
The new species is named Durio gerikensis, meaning 'from Gerik' in reference to the township of Gerik, in Hula Perak District, close to which the first specimen of the new species was found. This tree was initially identified as a specimen of Durio singaporensis, due to its arilless fruit, but when collected samples of these fruit were compared to specimens in the collections of the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute and Forest Research Institute Malaysia, they were found to be different. Upon returning to the site, the tree was found to have produced red flowers, something not previously seen in combination with an arilless fruit in Malaysia, leading Ghazalli et al. to conclude that it represented a new species.
Durio gerikensis is a forest tree reaching about 40 m in height, with a main trunk about 2.5-3.4 m heigh and 1.7-2.3 m in diameter, and an approximately oval canopy made up of medium to dense semi-erect branches. The leaves are oblong to lance-shaped, 9.3-11.6 cm long and 2.7–4.1 cm wide, with an upper side leathery and dark green while the underside is hairy and golden-green. Flowers are arranged in globular clusters with pinkish-red petals and prominent stamens. Fruit are dry, globose, and measure 6.1–7.5 × 5.2–6.1 cm, each producing a single large seed.
So far, Durio gerikensis has only been found growing in two locations, Gerik and the nearby town of Lenggong, despite an extensive search. Ghazalli et al. were able to cultivate another 20 young plants from seeds at the herberia of the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, but given the known vulnerability of the mixed Dipterocarp forest in which it grows, and the fact that both known wild Plants are close to growing settlements, they recommend that the species be treated as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
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