Scolopia luzonensis (PROSEA)

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Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Scolopia luzonensis (Presl) Warb.

Family: Flacourtiaceae

Synonyms

• Flacourtia crenata Wallich.

Vernacular names

• Philippines: babaliuain (Tagalog), aninguai (Sambali), palutan (Ilokano).

Distribution

The Philippines, Sabah, Sulawesi and Lesser Sunda Islands.

Uses

The fruits are eaten raw. The wood is very hard but apparently not used.

Observations

• Shrub or small tree, 5 m tall, occasionally with fine axillary thorns on young twigs.
• Leaves ovate-oblong, 6-12 cm × 2-5 cm.
• Inflorescences 10-14 flowered racemes, flowers white.
• Fruit an ovoid to subglobose berry, about 6 mm diameter, red, with 3-8 seeds.

In dry thickets and secondary forest, up to 700 m altitude, often on clayey soils or along sandy beaches.

Selected sources

• Merrill, E.D., 1923-1925. An enumeration of Philippine flowering plants. 4 Volumes. Government of the Philippine Islands, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Bureau of Printing, Manila.

• Monsalud, M.R., Tongacan, A.L., Lopez, F.R. & Lagrimas, M.Q., 1966. Edible wild plants in Philippine forests. The Philippine Journal of Science 95: 431 561.

• van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950-. Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4-10. Centre for Research and Development in Biology, Bogor, Indonesia, and Rijksherbarium, Leiden, the Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen