Author: (Colebrooke) Kuntze
Morphological description (bijuga Intsia compl FT31 )
Tree up to 40 m high and 1 m in diameter; buttresses when present up to 2(-4) m high and c. 2 m wide.
Leaves 2(or 3)-jugate, rarely 1-jugate towards the top of twigs or below the inflorescences; petiole and rachis (1.5-)2.5-11.5 cm long, glabrous; petiolules 2-6 mm. Leaflets (broadly) elliptic, ovate, obovate, rarely suborbiculate, (2.5-)5-10(-18) by (1.5-)4-6(-12) cm; apex obtuse, rounded, sometimes shortly acuminate, rarely slightly notched; base acute, cuneate, or obtuse, often slightly asymmetric.
Inflorescences up to 10(-17) cm long, pubescent, glabrescent, or more or less glabrous; pedicels 7-12 mm (bijuga Intsia infl 256079 ).
Flower: Hypanthium usually about the same length as the calyx lobes. Calyx lobes elliptic, 6-10(-16) by 4-5(-7.5) mm. Petal : limb 6-10(-30) by 10-15(-35) mm; claw c. 5 mm long. Fertile stamens : filaments c. 3 cm; anthers c. 2 mm long; staminodes up to 10 mm. Ovary c. 7.5 mm long; style c. 4 cm (bijuga Intsia compl BJ ;bijuga Intsia fl/infl Tan9a ).
Pods 8.5-15(-28) by 4-5(-7.2) cm (bijuga Intsia compl BJ ;bijuga Intsia pod/lvs Tan10a ).
Seeds 2-3.5 cm long and wide, c. 0.8 cm thick. Seedling: bijuga Intsia seedl 428829.
Distribution
From Madagascar, islands of the Indian Ocean, tropical Asia, through Malesia: to N Australia, Melanesia and Micronesia.
Habitat
Along (sandy) sea coasts, edges of rivers, tidal or temporarily inundated places with (salty) water, back-mangroves, in primary and secondary forests, in Kalimantan once found on acid, sandy soil; recorded from some places in Irian Jaya to be common to very common, from sea level up to c. 600 m altitude. Flowering and fruiting all the year round.
Uses
The timber (international trade name Merbau ) has a wide range of uses both indoors and outdoors, the main source of merbau timber being Intsia palembanica . See Vink (1994: 322-232) and Johns et al. (1993: 264-270).