Semecarpus longifolius (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Semecarpus longifolius Blume

Family: Anacardiaceae

Synonyms

• Semecarpus gigantifolia Vidal.

Vernacular names

• Philippines: manalu (Bisaya), anagas (Tagalog), libas (Bikol).

Distribution

Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia (Sulawesi, Moluccas).

Uses

Ripe fruits are edible. Wood used for construction purposes.

Observations

• Dioecious tree, up to 20 m tall and 30 cm diameter.
• Leaves very large.
• Inflorescences cauliflorous, flowers white.
• Fruit a drupe, subglobose, 1-2 cm diameter; swollen pedicel obconical-cylindrical, up to 2 cm × 1.5 cm.

Juice is poisonous, irritating the skin. In lowland forests; becoming rare in the Philippines.

Selected sources

• FAO, 1984. Food and fruit-bearing forest species 2: examples from Southeastern Asia. FAO Forestry paper 44/2, Rome. 167 pp.

• van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950-. Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4-10. Centre for Research and Development in Biology, Bogor, Indonesia, and Rijksherbarium, Leiden, the Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen