Castanopsis (PROSEA Fruits)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Castanopsis Spach

Family: Fagaceae

• Castanopsis costata (Blume) A. DC.

• Castanopsis inermis (Lindley ex Wallich) Benth. & Hook., synonym: C. sumatrana (Miq.) Oerst.

• Castanopsis lucida (Nees) Soepadmo, synonym: C. hullettii King ex Hook.f.

• Castanopsis malaccensis Gamble

• Castanopsis wallichii King ex Hook.f.

C. costata:

• Indonesia, Malaysia: berangan duri
• Thailand: ko muu.

C. inermis:

• Indonesia, Malaysia: berangan
• Thailand: ko khaao.

C. lucida:

• Indonesia, Malaysia: berangan papan.

C. malaccensis:

• Indonesia, Malaysia: berangan gajah.

C. wallichii:

• Indonesia, Malaysia: berangan duri
• Thailand: ko baan.

All species in Peninsular Thailand and Malaysia; C. costata, C. inermis, C. malaccensis also on Sumatra, C. costata, C. lucida also on Borneo.

The nuts are eaten raw, cooked, roasted or used in chocolates and pastries. The wood is hard, difficult to work and liable to splitting. The bark contains tannin.

• Trees of medium to large size.
• Leaves spirally arranged, coriaceous.
• Flowers usually unisexual, solitary or in clusters of 3-7 along the rachis of the inflorescence.
• Fruits completely enclosed by a spiny cupule which splits into separate segments at maturity; fruit a nut, 1-7 per cupule, more or less rounded with the adjoining sides flat, wall bony to woody.
• Seeds with flat-convex cotyledons.

In humid lowland to montane forest, mostly between 1000-1500 m altitude. Some other species, more important as timber, bear edible fruits as well.

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd ed. 2 Volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.

• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd ed. 3 Volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp.

• van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950-. Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4-10. Centre for Research and Development in Biology, Bogor, Indonesia, and Rijksherbarium, Leiden, the Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.

• P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen