Canarium decumanum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Canarium decumanum Gaertner

Protologue: Fruct. sem. pl. 2: 99, t. 102 (1791).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: kenari sabrang (Java), kenari besar (Moluccas), jilapat (Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: pomatodon (Sabah).

Distribution

Northern and eastern Borneo, southern Sulawesi, the Moluccas and New Guinea; sometimes cultivated in Java.

Uses

The wood is used as kedondong. The seeds are edible. The resin has been used for torches, for caulking boats and for fixing knives, but has been regarded as being of minor quality.

Observations

• A very large tree up to 60 m tall, bole up to 200 cm in diameter, with large buttresses up to 8 m high, bark surface smooth to dippled and scaly, pale brown to whitish, inner bark orange-red, with a strong mango smell, exuding a brownish sticky resin.
• Stipules present, resembling small leaflets, caducous; leaves with (7-)9-11(-13) leaflets, rachis with sharp edges, leaflets with a gradually and acutely long-acuminate apex, margin entire, glabrescent, with 17-26 pairs of secondary veins which are prominent on both surfaces.
• Inflorescence axillary, narrowly paniculate.
• Male flowers 7-9 mm long, female ones 8-14 mm long, stamens 6.
• Fruit ellipsoid, subtrigonous in cross-section, 70-85 mm × 45-60 mm, roughly hairy but glabrescent.

C. decumanum is found scattered in primary forest, up to 450 m altitude. The density of the wood is 400-725 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

68, 99, 162, 218, 342, 366.

Authors

M.S.M. Sosef (selection of species)

Main genus page

• Canarium