Author: de Wit
Morphological description
Tree to 20 m high and 80 cm in diameter. Stipules intrapetiolar, 1.5-2 mm long, deciduous.
Leaves (1 or)2-4(or 5)-foliolate, shortly petioled; petiole and rachis 1.5-4.5 cm long, glabrous, prolonged beyond the upper petiolule into a short, subulate tip; petiolules short, 1.5-6 mm, almost glabrous. Leaflets subcoriaceous or coriaceous, elliptic-oblong, ovate to lanceolate, or obovate-elliptic, 7-10.5(-16.5) by 2.5-3.5(-7) cm; apex shortly acuminate or acuminate; base cuneate, obtuse, or rounded, often symmetric; glabrous and often shining above, dull, loosely minutely, appressedly puberulous, usually glaucous beneath; nerves 5-7 per side.
Inflorescences racemose, axillary or terminal, up to 16 cm long, often erect, sometimes nodding, the rachis minutely puberulous; bracts ovate, 1-1.5 mm long, puberulous outside; bracteoles at the upper half of the pedicel, ovate, c. 1 mm long; pedicels 2-5 mm, articulated at the base, minutely puberulous.
Flowers thinly, minutely, appressed puberulous outside. Hypanthium c. 1.5 mm long, striate. Calyx lobes broadly elliptic or suborbicular, 3-4 mm long, puberulous outside, glabrous inside. Stamens (7-)8-10; filaments 6-8 mm; anthers ellipsoid, c. 1 mm long. Pistil stipitate; stipe free, 1-1.5 mm long, glabrous; ovary 2-3 mm long, (3 or)4-ovuled; style incurved, 3.5-6 mm, glabrous; stigma obscure.
Pods elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or broadly elliptic-ovate, 5.5-16.5 by 3.5-5.5 cm, flat, apex acute or obtuse, hardly beaked, acute or rounded at the base, loosely reticulately veined, densely shortly brown hairy, 2-4-seeded.
Seeds very young ones suborbicular, flat, 8-12 mm in diameter; ripe ones up to over 5 cm in diameter. (fide de Wit, 1950: 431).
Distribution
Malesia : Sumatra (Palembang), Borneo (Kalimantan).
Habitat & Ecology
In forests growing on swampy places, seasonally or continuously inundated grounds along river banks, sometime also occurring in secondary forests of sandstone slopes, rather common locally, up to 35 m altitude. Flowering in April and October; fruiting in July, August, and October.
Uses
De Wit (1950: 431) recorded that the fruits are cut and boiled, to serve as a bait for fishing `djelawat' (a small freshwater fish). It was once reported to be a `bee-tree'.