Terminalia triptera (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction

Protologue: Kew Bull.: 103 (1895).

Synonyms

Terminalia obliqua Craib (1912), Terminalia tripteroides Craib (1912), Terminalia nigrovenulosa Pierre ex Gagnep. (1916).

Vernacular names

Malaysia: jelawai (Peninsular). Burma (Myanmar): than-bo
Cambodia: soy nhi, khseau, prèah' phnoe ou
Laos: 'sêng kham
Thailand: puchao (northern), kamcham (peninsular), khi-ai (central)
Vietnam: chiêu liêu, cây găn.

Distribution

Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, Hainan, Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia.

Uses

The wood is used e.g. for construction, furniture and tool handles. The bark is used locally in Thailand to chew with betel nut and also used medicinally against dysentery.

Observations

A small to medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall, bole up to 50 cm in diameter, with small buttresses, bark surface smooth, brownish with shallow longitudinal streaks; leaves opposite to alternate, broadly ovate to elliptical or obovate, 3-12 cm × 1.5-6 cm, rounded to cuneate at base, glabrous or sparsely pubescent below, with 6-8 pairs of secondary veins, petiole 0.5-2 cm long; flowers in an axillary and terminal panicle 2.5-7 cm long, calyx tube glabrous; fruit oblong, 1-3.3 cm × 0.6-1.8 cm, practically glabrous, 3-winged. T. triptera is fairly common in mixed deciduous and dry evergreen forest, on limestone, quartzite or shale, up to 100 m altitude.

Selected sources

162, 163, 449, 666, 705.

M.S.M. Sosef (general part, selection of species),

E. Boer (general part),

W.G. Keating (properties),

S. Sudo (wood anatomy),

L. Phuphathanaphong (selection of species)