The identity of Boerlagiodendron sp. (Araliaceae) in ‘Flowering trees of the world’ by E.A. Menninger (1962, Hearthside Press, New York)

The late Edwin Menninger, long-time Florida plantsman, book dealer and author of several books including also Fantastic Trees and Flowering Vines of the World, covered some 500 trees in his Flowering Trees of the World, identifying most of them to species. It was very much a popular record of his and others’ introductions to South Florida (as well as much of the Gulf south of North America and the Atlantic coast northeast to Savannah, Georgia, all within USDA hardiness zone 9). Though now showing its ago, it remains one of the better works for the beginner and enthusiast. All its plates were in colour, unusual for 1962. A few species were, or could not be, determined. One of these (p. 43 and, facing p. 48, photograph 7) was Boerlagiodendron sp. (‘marang’), introduced by David Fairchild into South Florida from Karakelang in the Talaud Islands of Indonesia (between the Philippines and the Moluccas) and reported in his biotravelogue, Garden Islands of the Great East (1940).