Aglaia aspera (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Aglaia aspera Teijsm. & Binnend.

Protologue: Natuurk. Tijdschr. Ned. Ind. 27: 42 (1864).

Synonyms

Aglaia acuminatissima Teijsm. & Binnend. (1864), Aglaia polyphylla Miq. (1868), Aglaia calelanensis Elmer (1937).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: duku (Java), tanglan peucang (Sundanese, Java), sepanas (Sumatra)
• Malaysia: bekak (Peninsular), segera (Iban, Sabah)
• Philippines: basinau (Lanao).

Distribution

Peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and New Guinea.

Uses

The wood is used e.g. in Papua New Guinea for house construction. The aril of the seed is edible.

Observations

A small to medium-sized tree up to 29 m tall, bole branchless for up to 12 m, up to 50 cm in diameter, buttresses up to 1.8 m high, bark surface greyish-brown, yellowish-brown or reddish-brown, mottled with grey, green and pale brown, inner bark pink or brown; leaflets 7-13(-17), subopposite, with 7-14(-29) pairs of secondary veins, above with numerous pits and few stellate scales, below with numerous reddish-brown stellate scales and many-armed stellate hairs; flowers 5-merous, anthers 5, style-head ovoid, with 2 small apical lobes; fruit indehiscent, 2-locular. A. aspera occurs scattered to rather common in both primary and secondary forest, kerangas and monsoon forest, on sandy to loamy soils, from sea-level up to 1600 m altitude. The wood is reported as non-durable.

Selected sources

302, 303, 481, 544, 705.