Canarium littorale (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Canarium littorale Blume

Protologue: Bijdr. fl. Ned. Ind.: 1164 (1826).

Synonyms

• Canarium tomentosum Blume (1850),
• Canarium purpurascens Benn. (1875),
• Canarium rufum Benn. (1875).

Vernacular names

• Brunei: damar kahingai, jelemu nanking, kawangan
• Indonesia: mardundung (Palembang, Sumatra), ki kanari (Sundanese, Java), deluwak (Javanese, Java).Malaysia: kedondong bulan, kedondong gergaji, kedondong puteh (Peninsular).

Distribution

Indo-China, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and Borneo.

Uses

C. littorale is an important source of kedondong wood; the wood is used for e.g. house building. The resin is used for caulking boats, and is regarded in Chinese medicine as useful against itching.

Observations

• A medium-sized to large tree up to 45 m tall, bole branchless for up to 21 m, up to 100 cm in diameter, sometimes with short buttresses, bark surface smooth to dippled and scaly, grey-green to yellowish-brown, inner bark laminated, orange-red to brownish.
• Stipules caducous or semi-persistent, kidney-shaped with wavy to deeply lobed margins; leaves with (1-)5-13 leaflets, rachis glabrous or hairy, leaflets shortly acuminate at apex, margin entire to serrulate or dentate, glabrous to densely tomentose below and on the midrib above, with 9-22 pairs of secondary veins which are more or less sunken above.
• Inflorescence terminal, sometimes with additional axillary one, male one paniculate, female one subracemose.
• Flowers 8-13 mm long, stamens 6.
• Fruit ellipsoid to obovoid, circular to triangular in cross-section, 45-70 mm × 15-30 mm, glabrous to sparsely pilose.

C. littorale is highly variable with 5 recognized forms. These are f. littorale, f. purpurascens (Benn.) Leenh., f. pruinosum (Engl.) Leenh., f. tomentosum (Blume) Leenh., and f. rufum (Benn.) Leenh. C. littorale is common in well-drained to swampy locations in humid climates to climates with slightly seasonal conditions, usually in lowland forest but sometimes in montane forest, up to 1100(-2000) m altitude. The density of the wood is 410-680 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

9, 77, 78, 99, 162, 294, 342, 366, 463, 465, 522, 705.

Authors

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

Main genus page

• Canarium