Changes

*''Melientha'' ''acuminata'' Merrill (1926).

''M.'' ''suavis'' is native to Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sabah and the Philippines. Throughout this area it occurs wild and occasionally in cultivation. The species is rare in Malaysia and the Philippines.

''M.'' ''suavis'' is used and marketed locally. Cultivation on a commercial scale is known from northern Thailand, where intercropping in fruit orchards is practised. For this purpose, seedlings can be obtained from commercial nurseries in the area. 

''M.'' ''suavis'' is a good source of protein and vitamin C. Fresh shoots and leaves contain per 100 g edible portion: water 76.6 g, protein 8.2 g, carbohydrates 10.0 g, fibre 3.4 g, ash 1.8 g, carotene 1.6 mg, vitamin C 115 mg. The energy value is about 300 kJ/100 g.

*Small evergreen dioecious tree up to 13 m tall with usually cylindrical crown and glabrous, drooping branchlets. *Leaves simple, alternate, glabrous, coriaceous-fleshy; petiole up to 5 mm long; leaf-blade lanceolate, elliptical to ovate or obovate, (4-)6-12(-16) cm × 2.5-5(-7) cm, apex obtuse- or retuse-mucronulate, sometimes acute to acuminate, base cuneate-attenuate; nerves 5-6(-8) pairs. *Inflorescence panicle-like, irregularly branched, mostly in groups on swellings at the main trunk but also on branches and even in the axils of the uppermost leaves; main rachis up to 15 cm, in fruiting state up to 20 cm long; flowers unisexual, 4- or 5-merous. *Male flowers sessile, solitary or in groups of 3-5 (mainly at the end of the rachises) in the axil of a minute bract; tepals reflexed; filaments very short, attached to the base of the tepals; anthers relatively large; disk lobes fleshy, as large as the rudimentary ovary. *Female flowers solitary per bract, sometimes in groups of 3-4; pedicel 3-7 mm long; tepals adjacent to the ovary; the small staminodes alternating with broad disk lobes. *Fruit a drupe, ellipsoid to slightly ovoid or obovoid, 2.3-4 cm × 1.5-2 cm, yellow; pericarp thin, 1.5-2 mm thick, with fleshy-juicy mesocarp and woody endocarp. *Seed single, embryo with 3-4 linear cotyledons embedded in oily endosperm.

''M.'' ''suavis'' occurs naturally in deciduous forest, rarely in dry evergreen forest (valleys, borders of streams), at altitudes of 300-900(-1500) m. In Vietnam it is common on limestone soils, in Sabah on black rocky soils. Flowering is from December to March and fruiting from April to August. Pollination is by insects. Natural dispersal takes place by birds, water and wild animals.

Nutritionally ''M.'' ''suavis'' is an excellent vegetable. It deserves to be studied in more detail to determine its potential for wider use and cultivation in agroforestry systems.

*Nguyen Tien Hiep