Alstonia pneumatophora (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Alstonia pneumatophora Backer ex den Berger

Protologue: Meded. Proefst. Thee 97: 153 (1926).

Vernacular names

• Brunei: pulai puteh
• Malaysia: pulai basong (Peninsular)
• Indonesia: basung (Sumatra).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and Sulawesi.

Uses

The wood is used as pulai; it is suitable for carving. The wood of the aerial roots is used as a substitute for cork. The latex from the bark can be used for healing wounds and, when mixed with oil, to make glue sticks.

Observations

• A medium-sized to large tree of up to 45 m tall, bole fluted, up to 100 cm in diameter, with large, narrow buttresses of up to 10 m tall, sometimes spreading as stout tortuous ground roots with knees (pneumatophores), sometimes with flying buttresses, outer bark grey to white, tinged yellow or purplish, smooth, sometimes with scaly patches, inner bark thick, soft, orange-brown, granular, with copious latex.
• Leaves in whorls of 4-6, 8-10 cm long, spatulate, with a rounded or retuse apex and numerous secondary veins.
• Inflorescence with 2 nodes of many crowded flowers on 0-3 mm long pedicels; calyx hirtellous, corolla glabrous outside.
• Follicles pilose.

A. pneumatophora occurs in mixed peat-swamp forest on shallow peat, especially overlying sand near the coastal fringe, becoming abundant near the mouth of large rivers. The density of the wood is about 400 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

33, 100, 274, 318, 455, 496, 559, 619, 779.

Main genus page

• Alstonia

Authors

• Rudjiman (selection of species)