Artocarpus nitidus (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Artocarpus nitidus Trécul

Protologue: Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. III, 8: 119 (1847).

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: tampang (Peninsular)
• Philippines: kubi (Filipino)
• Thailand: mahat-khoi (Surat Thani).

Distribution

From Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China and southern China towards Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines; sometimes planted for its edible fruit.

Uses

The wood is used as terap or keledang, e.g. in house building and light construction. The fruit is edible, but not very tasty. Bark and roots are sometimes added to betel.

Observations

• A medium-sized to fairly large evergreen tree up to 35 m tall, bole up to 65 cm in diameter, buttresses absent or up to 1 m high.
• Leaves obovate-elliptical to ovate-oblong, base cuneate to rounded, glabrous or sometimes puberulent on the veins below, with 5-15 pairs of secondary veins, stipules not amplexicaul.
• Male head obovoid or oblong, 2.5-7 mm across, on a 1-3 mm long peduncle; styles in female head simple; syncarp subglobose, 1.5-6 cm across, smooth, with a varying indumentum.

Within A. nitidus 5 subspecies are recognized:

• subsp. nitidus (synonym: A. lanceolatus Trécul) occurring in the Philippines,
• subsp. borneensis (Merr.) Jarrett (synonym: A. borneensis Merr.) occurring in Borneo,
• subsp. griffithii (King) Jarrett (synonyms: A. eberhardtii Gagnep., A. gomezianus auct. non Trécul, A. griffithii (King) Merr.) occurring in Indo-China, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo,
• subsp. humilis (Becc.) Jarrett (synonym: A. humilis Becc.) occurring in Borneo and
• subsp. lingnanensis (Merr.) Jarrett (synonym: A. lingnanensis Merr.) occurring in Indo-China, southern China and Thailand.

A. nitidus is frequent and found in evergreen forest or sometimes in semi-deciduous forest or even savannah woodland up to 1500 m altitude.

Selected sources

104, 175, 263, 294, 465, 544, 574, 705, 734. timbers

Main genus page

• Artocarpus (PROSEA Timbers)
• See also the Artocarpus (PROSEA Fruits) for the fruit use

Authors

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