Archidendron fagifolium (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Archidendron fagifolium (Blume ex Miquel) Nielsen

Family: Leguminosae

Synonyms

• Pithecellobium angulatum auct., non Benth.,
• P. fagifolium Blume ex Miquel,
• P. mindanaense Merrill

Note: Pithecellobium is often written as Pithecolobium.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: jengkolan, jering goleng (Javanese), ki ca-ang (Sundanese)

• Philippines: kulikul (Sulu), lalatan (Subanun), tomanag (Bagobo)

Distribution

Sumatra (var. fagifolium), Java, Borneo (var. borneense Nielsen) and the Philippines (var. mindanaense (Merrill) Nielsen).

Uses

Although the smell of the seed is rather offensive, the seeds are used to add flavour to food just like jengkol (Archidendron jiringa (Jack) Nielsen).

Observations

• Shrub or tree, up to 16 m tall.
• Leaves bipinnately compound; pinnae 1-3 pairs; leaflets 2-5 pairs per pinna, ovate-elliptical to trapezoid or lanceolate, 2-15 cm × 1-7 cm, glabrous to puberulous; glands present on rachis and pinna.
• Inflorescence consisting of pedunculate glomerules aggregated into a narrow panicle; panicle up to 35 cm long; glomerules composed of about 3 subsessile flowers; corolla white to greenish-white, funnel-shaped, 4-6 mm long, 5-lobed.
• Fruit a legume, 11-20 cm × 1-2 cm, curved into a flattened half or full circle, light yellow outside, orange within.
• Seed compressed ellipsoidal, 8 mm × 4 mm, glossy black.

Var. fagifolium is up to 6 m tall, its leaflets are glabrous on the underside, its glands are raised, the rachis gland is circular to elliptical and the pinna gland circular; it occurs in rain forest and forest margins, on volcanic soils, limestone or clay, up to 1000 m altitude; it flowers and fruits throughout the year.

Var. borneense is up to 16 m tall, its leaflets are puberulous on the major veins, its rachis and pinna glands are linear to slit-like and not raised; it occurs in primary rain forest, swampy forest, up to 600 m altitude, and flowers and fruits May-December.

Var. mindanaense is up to 8 m tall, its leaflets are puberulous on the major veins, its rachis and pinna glands are circular and usually raised; it occurs on ridges in rain forest, up to 1150 m altitude.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters‑Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963), 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965), 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968), 761 pp.

• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950- . Series 1. Vol. 1, 4- . Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands.

• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd edition, 3 volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp. (3rd edition, 1950. van Hoeve, 's‑Gravenhage/Bandung, the Netherlands/Indonesia. 1660 pp.).

• Merrill, E.D., 1923-1926. An enumeration of Philippine flowering plants. 4 volumes. Bureau of Printing, Manila, the Philippines. 463, 530, 628, 515 pp. respectively.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen