Canarium maluense (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Canarium maluense Lauterb.

Protologue: Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 56: 323 (1920).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: kapur-barus (Sulawesi), lian (Morotai), nanari laki-laki (Irian Jaya).

Distribution

Eastern Borneo, central Sulawesi, the Moluccas (Morotai, Batjan, Aru Islands), New Guinea and the Louisiada Archipelago.

Uses

The wood is used as kedondong.

Observations

• A large to very large tree up to 60 m tall, bole branchless for up to 25 m, up to 75 cm in diameter, with buttresses up to 1.5 m high, bark surface with grey spots, inner bark yellowish-brown, exuding white fragrant resin.
• Stipules caducous to persistent, inserted on or at the very base of the petiole, scaly to auricle-shaped; leaves with 3-9 leaflets, leaflets distinctly shortly bluntly acuminate at apex, acumen often emarginate, margin entire, almost glabrous or rarely tomentose below, with 10-25 pairs of secondary veins.
• Inflorescences terminal and in the upper leaf axils, paniculate.
• Flowers 3-6(-9) mm long, stamens 6.
• Fruit ovoid to ellipsoid, circular or sometimes quadrangular in cross-section, 17-30 mm × 10-18 mm, glabrous.

Two subspecies have been distinguished. Subsp. maluense (synonyms: Canarium lian H.J. Lam, Canarium quadrangulare H.J. Lam) occurs from Sulawesi eastward. Five formae have been described within this highly variable subspecies. Subsp. borneense Leenh. differs mainly by its 8-9 mm long flowers, and occurs in eastern Borneo. C. maluense occurs in primary rain forest, up to 1100 m altitude. The density of the wood is 560-720 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

162, 330, 342, 366, 474.

Authors

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

Main genus page

• Canarium