Diospyros hasseltii (PROSEA Timbers)
Introduction |
Diospyros hasseltii Zoll.
- Protologue: Natuurk. Tijdschr. Ned. Ind. 14: 159 (1857).
Synonyms
Diospyros horsfieldii Hiern (1873), Diospyros brachiata King & Gamble (1905).
Vernacular names
- Indonesia: kasemek, semak (Java), belang limus (Sumatra)
- Malaysia: baneng, merangat (Peninsular)
- Thailand: tako-suan (general), tako, baneng.
Distribution
Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and Bali.
Uses
The wood is used as ebony. The seeds are edible. The juice of the fruit has been used as a varnish.
Observations
A medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall, bole short, cylindrical, up to 50 cm in diameter, bark surface rough, greyish; leaves elliptical to oblong, 12-35 cm × 4-15 cm, base broadly cuneate to rounded, apex shortly obtusely acuminate, glabrous, tertiary venation reticulate, depressed above, distinctly prominent below; male flowers in 3-many-flowered cymes, 4-5-merous, stamens 12-16; female flowers in 1-many-flowered cymes, 4-5-merous, calyx lobes valvate-plicate, tomentose on both sides, corolla divided to two-thirds, staminodes 8-12, ovary with 4 styles and 8(-10) uni-ovulate locules; fruit globose to ovoid, 1.5-3.5 cm across, tomentose but soon glabrous. D. hasseltii is uncommon and often occurs near streams in evergreen lowland forest, up to 500 m altitude.
Selected sources
42, 234, 457, 495, 575, 673, 705.