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'''== Trade groups== ''' Sungkai''': lightweight hardwood, a single species, ''[[Peronema canescens]]'' Jack, Malayan Misc. 2(7): 46 (1822), synonym: ''Peronema heterophyllum'' Miq. (1860).

*'''Sungkai: '''*false elder, kurus (En)

The wood of sungkai is mostly used locally. It can be obtained in fairly large quantities and is regularly available. The current price in Java is US$ 90/m³and sungkai is classified as a luxurious timber. In Indonesia, export to Japan is becoming important.

Sungkai is a light to medium-weight and moderately hard wood, with some resemblance to teak. The heartwood is cream-coloured to light yellow or light brown, and not clearly demarcated from the sapwood. The density is (360-)520-730 kg/m³at 15% moisture content. The wood surface is moderately glossy, and the radial surface shows a figure of distinct and straight lines. The grain of the wood is straight, but sometimes slightly wavy, texture moderately fine to moderately coarse and often rather uneven.

*An evergreen or deciduous shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 20(-30) m tall; bole straight or slightly flexuous, branchless for up to 9(-15) m, up to 70 cm in diameter, usually with small buttresses; root system superficial, with a short taproot; bark surface dirty grey or light buff, smooth to fissured and fibrous or scaly; crown ovoid; twigs 4-angled, densely short-hairy. *Leaves opposite, imparipinnate, purplish tinged when young; petiole and rachis winged, together (16-)30-90 cm long; leaflets in 3-11 opposite or subopposite pairs, sessile or shortly stalked, lanceolate, up to 35 cm × 7.5 cm, base cuneate and slightly unequal, acute to acuminate at the top, the upper leaflets increasing in size, margin entire (serrate in saplings), densely pubescent and pale whitish beneath, lateral veins 20-30 pairs, parallel, prominent below; stipules absent. *Inflorescence paniculate, terminal or in the axils of the upper leaves, large and widely branched, erect, 25-60 cm long, densely shortly grey tomentose. *Flowers bisexual, small, subsessile, 5-merous; calyx densely pubescent outside, about 2.5 mm long but slightly enlarged in fruit, the lobes slightly shorter than the tube; corolla bilabiate, with a short bell-shaped tube, white or greenish-white, appressed pubescent outside, upper lip bifid, lower lip 3-fid, longer than the upper, with a large median lobe of 2.5 mm long; stamens 2, inserted at the base of the widening part of the corolla tube, far exserted, filaments glabrous; ovary 4-celled, the cells 1-ovuled, densely pubescent, style far exserted, with a subulate top. *Fruit drupaceous, dry, globose, small, 3-3.5 mm in diameter, densely pubescent, splitting into 4 parts, with many pendulous seeds. *Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons equal, petiolate, ovate with an emarginate apex, entire or coarsely 2-4-dentate; first leaves pinnately lobed, subsequent ones imparipinnate.

*Heartwood cream-coloured to yellowish or light brown, often with a light red tinge, not clearly distinct from the sapwood. *Grain straight, sometimes slightly wavy. *Texture moderately fine and even or moderately coarse and uneven. *Growth rings conspicuous on all surfaces; wood ring porous, pore rings producing dark lines on longitudinal surfaces, vessels visible with a lens, in pore rings medium-sized to moderately small; parenchyma and rays only visible with a lens; ripple marks and intercellular canals absent.

*Growth ring boundaries marked by difference in vessel frequency and vessel size. *Vessels 5-8/mm², in pore rings in radial or oblique rows of 2-3 and 180-260μm 260 μm in tangential diameter, in latewood mostly solitary but occasionally in radial pairs, 100-170μm 170 μm in tangential diameter; perforations simple; intervessel pits alternate, minute; vessel-ray pits similar to intervessel pits, but occasionally simple. *Fibres 900-1600μm 1600 μm long, with an average diameter of 19μm19 μm, non-septate, moderately thick-walled (3.5-4μm), with simple to minutely bordered pits. *Parenchyma moderately abundant, paratracheal, aliform, mainly vasicentric, forming complete or incomplete borders to the vessels, and tending to form discontinuous confluent layers; terminal parenchyma present at the borders of the growth rings. *Rays 4-7(-12)/mm, usually 4-10-seriate, 200-800μm high, 40-60μm and 1-3 cells wide, heterogeneous (Kribs type heterogeneous II and III). *Crystals absent, silica bodies often present in ray cells.

The genus ''Peronema'' is assigned to the subfamily ''Caryopteridoideae'' on the basis of its cymose inflorescence and its drupaceous, 4-parted fruit. Its closest relatives probably belong to the genus ''Glossocarya'' , which differs in having 4 stamens and a narrow fruit with basally winged seeds. Sungkai resembles elder ( ''Sambucus'' spp.), hence the name false elder. However, the leaves of sungkai are not foetid when crushed, its flowers are not fragrant and the large panicles with small dry fruits and winged petioles are quite distinctive.

'''== Silviculture and management''' == Sungkai is unsuitable for planting in mixtures with other species, but it may be used as first cover for the planting of dipterocarp species. Self-pruning does not occur sufficiently. Artificial pruning is necessary; wounds caused by artificial pruning heal fast and seldom cause rot.

In Indonesia sungkai supplies from natural forests are becoming depleted, but as natural regeneration is often abundant in disturbed areas, there seems to be no direct danger of threat to ''P. canescens'' . There are plantations of several hundreds of ha in Central and East Java and in logged-over concession areas of East Kalimantan.

* Moldenke, H.N., 1980. Notes on the genus Peronema. Phytologia 45: 339-349. | '''10''' | * Priasukmana, S. & Yusliansyah, 1988. Kajian ekonomi industri mebel kecil [The economic study of small furniture industry]. Wanatrop 3(2): 38-54. == Other selected sources ==

'''Other selected sources''' 84, 99, 153, 261, 318, 578, 779.

*N.R. de Graaf (general part), *J.W. Hildebrand (general part), *R.P. van der Zwan (properties) & ,*J.M. Fundter (wood anatomy)