Willughbeia angustifolia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Willughbeia angustifolia (Miq.) Markgr.

Protologue: Apocynaceae

Willughbeia apiculata Miq., W. elmeri Merr., W. rufescens Dyer ex Hook.f.

• Indonesia: jotan (Batak), jantahan, langgitan (West Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: gerit-gerit.

Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia (Sumatra, Kalimantan, Buru), Brunei, Nicobar Islands.

From the latex a sticky rubber of inferior quality is prepared which has been used to adulterate (up to half/half) better quality rubber-latex or, more often, gutta-percha. The stems are also used for binding. The latex is used medicinally to cure serious ulcers. The fruits are said to be edible.

Woody climber, up to 60 m long, with glabrous branchlets, producing latex. Leaves opposite; petiole up to 2 cm long; blade elliptical, ovate or oblong, 3-14 cm × 1-4 cm, 2-4 times as long as wide, base rounded to cuneate, apex obtuse to acuminate. Inflorescence an axillary cyme (rarely a fascicle of 3), up to 2 cm long, with 5-19 flowers; flowers 5-merous, actinomorphic, bisexual, white to greenish; corolla tubular, tube inflated, up to 3 mm long, lobes up to 4.5 mm long. Fruit a fleshy, globose berry, 2-10 cm in diameter, pale green, yellow, orange or reddish, indehiscent. Seed compressed ovoid, about 2 cm × 1 cm, coma absent. W. angustifolia is rather variable in leaf shape, size and venation. Its small inflated corolla tube and short delicate inflorescence are rather distinctive.

20, 23, 27, 31, 34.