Helicia robusta (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Helicia robusta (Roxb.) R. Br. ex Wallich

Family: Proteaceae

Synonyms

• Helicia cumingiana Presl,
• Helicia integrifolia Elmer,
• Helicia javanica (Blume) Blume,
• H. philippinensis Meisner.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: kayu maributan (Palembang, Sumatra), kendung (Javanese, Sundanese), watutu (Dayak, West Kutai)
• Malaysia: jaring jaringan jawa (Sabah), medang keladi, medang layang (Peninsular)
• Philippines: malaantigan (Samar-Leyte Bisaya), salimai (Manobo), salimai-lakihan, lakot, salinsi (Tagalog), matabato (Bisaya), gulattan (Ifugao)
• Burma (Myabmar): tauk yat
• Thailand: duei, hang krakok, niang-krup (peninsular), meat khon (northern).
• Vietnam: chẹo thui lớn

Distribution

Southern India, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines.

Uses

In Indonesia the young violet shoots are eaten raw as vegetable. The wood is a minor timber.

Observations

• Shrub to small tree, 5-8(-18) m tall, with rufous pilose branchlets.
• Leaves obliquely subopposite or 3-4-subverticillate, subcoriaceous; petiole thick, very short; leaf-blade oblong to obovate, 7-40 cm × 4-15 cm, violet and densely hairy all over the undersurface when young, yellowish or bluish-green and entirely glabrous when older, margin serrate or entire.

In rain forest of lower mountains, often on watersides, up to 1900 m altitude. Two varieties have been distinguished: var. robusta and var. integrifolia (Elmer) Sleumer, the latter having entire, often somewhat smaller leaves, occurring only in the Philippines.

Selected sources

7, 52, 66, 84, 91.