Diospyros andamanica (PROSEA)
Introduction |
Diospyros andamanica (Kurz) Bakh.
- Protologue: Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, sér. 3, 15: 74 (1937).
Synonyms
Maba racemosa Ridley (1925), Diospyros carpinifolia (Ridley) Bakh. (1933), Diospyros malayana Bakh. (1933).
Vernacular names
- Indonesia: awa buluan, siawang etem (Sumatra), jangis (Kalimantan)
- Malaysia: poko assam kumbang (Peninsular).
Distribution
The Andaman Islands, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo.
Uses
The wood has been used as dark-coloured ebony in house construction.
Observations
A small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall, bole up to 75 cm in diameter,bark surface smooth to scaly, black, grey or brown; leaves usually elliptical or oblong-elliptical, rarely ovate or obovate, 5-30 cm × 1.5-12 cm, base cordate to rounded, apex acuminate, hairy on veins below, tertiary venation scalariform, slightly prominent below; male flowers in 8-15-flowered cymes, 3-merous, stamens 4-12; female flowers in 3-12-flowered cymes, 3-merous, calyx lobes valvate, densely hirsute outside, corolla divided to about halfway, staminodes 3, ovary with 3 styles and 6 uni-ovulate locules; fruit globose, ovoid, or ellipsoid, 1.5-2.5 cm × 1.3-2.0 cm, papillose to finely warty. D. andamanica is uncommon, occurring scattered in primary lowland forest, occasionally on limestone, up to 600 m altitude.
Selected sources
42, 457, 463, 705.