THREE NEW RECORDS OF STERCULIACEAE FOR BANGLADESH

Three species belonging to Sterculiaceae, namely Guazuma ulmifolia Lam., Helicteres viscida Bl. and Sterculia urens Roxb. are recorded here for the first time for Bangladesh. Of these, the genus Guazuma is also a new generic record for the country. Updated nomenclature, important synonyms, description, ecology and geographical distribution are provided for each species. Introduction Sterculiaceae is moderately a large family consisting of some 70 genera and 1500 species, mainly of tropical and subtropical regions (Cronquist, 1981). Referring to the Sterculiaceae of Bangladesh Hooker (1874) reported 20 species under 10 genera from the present Bangladesh, whereas, Prain (1903) documented 9 species and 5 genera from the same area. Heinig (1925) recorded 14 species from Chittagong Collectorate and Hill tracts. Sinclair (1956) listed 6 species of this family from Cox’s Bazar while Datta and Mitra (1953) registered 11 species from Dhaka and its suburb. Very recently Ahmed et al. (2009) added to our knowledge documenting 25 species of Sterculiaceae occurring in Bangladesh. During the course of a revisionary work on Sterculiaceae of Bangladesh the first author visited the British Museum, London (BM), Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (E) and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K). At these herbaia he came across some herbarium specimens (Clarke 19931, Cowan 1618, Hooker & T. Thomson 302) collected from the area now falls under Bangladesh, namely, Guazuma ulmifolia Lam., Helicteres viscida Bl. and Sterculia urens Roxb., respectively. None of these species appeared in the relevant publications of the regional flora, viz. Hooker (1874), Prain (1903), Heinig (1925), Raizada (1941), Datta and Mitra (1953), Sinclair (1956), Khan and Afza (1968), Khan and Banu (1972), Khan and Hassan (1984), Khan et al. (1994), Mia and Khan (1995), Rahman and Hassan (1995), Rahman and Uddin (1997), Uddin et al. (1998), Uddin and Rahman (1999), Khan and Huq (2001), Rahman et al. (2001), Rashid and Mia (2001), Uddin et al. (2003), Rahman (2004a, b), Hossain et al. (2005), Islam et al. (2009), Tutul et al. (2009, 2010), Rahman et al. (2010) and Uddin and Hassan (2010). Since there has been no record of occurrence of Guazuma ulmifolia Lam., Helicteres viscida Bl. and Sterculia urens Roxb. in any *Corresponding author. Email: dr_oliur@yahoo.com Former Principal Scientific Officer, Bangladesh National Herbarium, Mirpur-1, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh. Former Consultant-Taxonomist, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.


Introduction
Sterculiaceae is moderately a large family consisting of some 70 genera and 1500 species, mainly of tropical and subtropical regions (Cronquist, 1981).Referring to the Sterculiaceae of Bangladesh Hooker (1874) reported 20 species under 10 genera from the present Bangladesh, whereas, Prain (1903) documented 9 species and 5 genera from the same area.Heinig (1925) recorded 14 species from Chittagong Collectorate and Hill tracts.Sinclair (1956) listed 6 species of this family from Cox's Bazar while Datta and Mitra (1953) registered 11 species from Dhaka and its suburb.Very recently Ahmed et al. (2009) added to our knowledge documenting 25 species of Sterculiaceae occurring in Bangladesh.

Guazuma ulmifolia
Flowering and fruiting period: January to September.
Flowering and fruiting period: July to March.
Flowering and fruiting period: October to February.
Geographical distribution: Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.