Syzygium grande (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Syzygium grande (Wight) Walp.

Protologue: Repert. bot. syst. 2: 180 (1843).

Synonyms

Eugenia grandis Wight (1841).

Vernacular names

• Sea apple (En)
• Malaysia: kelat jambu, jambu air laut, jambu jembah (Peninsular). Burma (Myanmar): toung-thabyay, thabyay-kyee
• Thailand: mao (peninsular), yamu-yimma (Malay, Narathiwat), wa-dong (Kanchanaburi).

Distribution

India, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.

Uses

The timber is used for house and ship building. The trees are planted along roadsides and have been used as fire-breaks.

Observations

A medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall, bole up to 80 cm in diameter, fluted at base, bark surface shallowly fissured and somewhat flaky, greyish-buff or pinkish; leaves elliptical or broadly elliptical, 10-25 cm × 6-12 cm, with up to 14(-20) pairs of well-spaced, distinct secondary veins, petiole up to 20 mm long; flowers clustered in axillary and terminal panicles, white, calyx c. 7 mm long, with 4 very unequal lobes; fruit subglobose to ellipsoid, up to 40 mm long, green when ripe. S. grande is a common tree on sandy and rocky coasts of Peninsular Malaysia. It occurs also in bamboo forest, savanna and edges of forest near the sea-shore, up to 1200 m altitude. The wood is brown with a purple-grey tinge; the density is 705-875 kg/m³at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

78, 90, 104, 140, 234, 336, 429, 454, 474, 529, 705.