Calophyllum sil (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Calophyllum sil Lauterb.

Protologue: Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 58: 14 (1922).

Distribution

The Moluccas, New Guinea and northern Australia.

Uses

The wood is used for canoes in Papua New Guinea.

Observations

• A medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall with bole up to 140 cm in diameter, without buttresses but sometimes with spurs; twigs usually strongly 4-angled, terminal bud plump, 5-10(-13) mm long.
• Leaves obovate to elliptical, (3-)5-12.5 cm long, broadly rounded to cuneate at base, rounded to acute at apex, with (5-)7-13 veins per 5 mm.
• Inflorescences axillary, usually unbranched, 3-13-flowered; flowers with 4(-6) tepals.
• Fruit spherical to ovoid, 13-20 mm long, with fairly thin, compact outer layer, bluish to purplish-black.

C. sil grows in savanna woodland and riverine gallery forest, rarely in secondary forest, up to 200 m altitude. Slightly different forms from the Moluccas and northern New Guinea occur in rain forest up to 650 m altitude.

Selected sources

648.

Main genus page

• Calophyllum

Authors

R.H.M.J. Lemmens (selection of species)