Palaquium obtusifolium (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Palaquium obtusifolium Burck

Protologue: Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg 5: 33 (1886).

• Palaquium negrosense Merr. (1915),
• Palaquium ternatense H.J. Lam (1925),
• Madhuca obtusifolia (Burck) Baehni (1965).

• Indonesia: tatahaan, weluan (Sulawesi), tofiri mojui (Moluccas)
• Philippines: negros nato (general).

Sumatra, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, the Philippines (Negros, Mindanao), the Moluccas and Irian Jaya.

The timber is used as nyatoh, but only for indoor use; locally it is used for canoes.

• A large tree up to 45 m tall, with bole up to 100 cm in diameter, with buttresses.
• Leaves evenly distributed or loosely clustered at tip of twigs, obovate, spatulate or elliptical, with slender, transverse tertiary veins, initially sparsely pubescent beneath but soon glabrous.
• Flowers in 2-5-flowered clusters, borne on 9-15(-32) mm long pedicels, yellowish to brownish.
• Fruit ovoid or obovoid, 3-4 cm long, glabrous and greenish.

P. obtusifolium is found in lowland primary forest. The timber is moderately light to moderately heavy (density of 390-740 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content) and not very strong or durable when exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground.

36, 318, 461, 480, 486, 743.

• Palaquium (Timbers)

• R.H.M.J. Lemmens (selection of species)