Authors: (Miquel) Léonard
Morphological description (see also description of Genus Afzelia )
Tree up to 42 m high and 70(–130) cm in diameter. Buttresses up to 5 m high, 1.25 m wide and 8 cm thick. Young twigs, rachides, leaflets especially on the midrib of the lower, sometimes also on the upper surface sparsely, sometimes densely pubescent or glabrescent. Stipules interpetiolarly connate at base.
Leaves paripinnate, (4–)6(–8)-jugate; petiole and rachis up to c. 20(–30) cm; petiolules 2–3 mm. Leaflets oblong-elliptic or -ovate, rarely ovate or broadly elliptic, 6–9(–16) by 2.5–4(–5.5) cm; apex shortly acuminate, obtuse, rarely retuse; base rounded or obtuse, slightly subcordate, or acute; lateral nerves 7–14 pairs; veins loosely reticulate.
Inflorescences terminal or axillary, racemose, often fasciculate or paniculate, with rachis often 4–12(–24) cm, pubescent; bracts and bracteoles 3–5 mm long; pedicels 8–12 mm, puberulous.
Flower bisexual, zygomorphic, pedicelled. Hypanthium cupular, narrowly infundibuliform or cylindric, puberulous outside, glabrous inside, 5–7 mm long. Calyx lobes 4, broadly elliptic or suborbiculate, 6–10 by 4–7(–9) mm. Only one fully developed petal , flabellate, lower half narrowed into a claw, 8–10 by 7–9 mm; the other petals small or absent. Disk absent. Stamens 9, usually (5-)7 fertile, almost equal, filaments (4.5–)5.5–6.5 cm long, united along the lower (1.5–)2–2.5 cm, glabrous except towards the base inside thinly hirsute; anthers dorsifixed, 1–1.5 mm long; staminodes c. 4 mm, glabrous. Ovary stipitate (stipe adnate to the hypanthium), c. 6 mm long, densely puberulous along the margin, 3-8(or more)-ovuled; style slender, 4–5.5 cm; stigma small, round.
Pods oblong, obliquely oblong, or slightly rhomboid, compressed, black when ripe, glabrous, 2-valved, valves thick, woody, often 3 (or more)-seeded, 7–14 by 5–7.5 cm, 1.5–2 cm thick.
Seeds often 3 (or more); 1–8, 2–3 by 1.5–2.2 cm, c. 1.3 cm; thick ellipsoid, ovoid-oblong or broadly ellipsoid, smooth, exalbuminous; aril yellow, orange, or red, often 2-lobed, covering the seed for up to half or more of its length.
Distribution
Malesia : Sumatra (Aceh and East Central), West & Central Java.
Habitat & Ecology
In primary and secondary forests, in dry places, rarely occurring on limestone, usually found at 0–100 m, sometimes up to 400(–800) m altitude. Flowering in April, and October; fruiting in January–March, May, and August.
Uses
Often cultivated as an ornamental. Timber tree.