Discospermum singulare (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Discospermum singulare (Korth.) O. Kuntze

Family: Rubiaceae

Diplospora singularis Korth., Discospermum abnorme (Korth.) Ali & Robbrecht, Tricalysia singularis (Korth.) K. Schumann.

• Indonesia: kayu begas (Palembang), kayu gading (Bangka), sungkai alas (Kubu)
• Thailand: dongsian, makhua-pho, sian (northern)
• Vietnam: ta dẻ, song tử dị diệp.

From India and the Himalayas to Indo-China, Thailand, Sumatra, Bangka and Borneo.

A hot decoction of the roasted leaves has been drunk by people in Kubu (Sumatra) as a substitute for coffee. This drink is known as "kopi Kubu".

A small tree, up to 18 m tall; bole straight; bark fissured, greyish. Leaves opposite; stipules triangular acuminate; petiole 1-1.5 cm long; blade elliptical, 12-18 cm × 4-6.5 cm, coriaceous, rounded at base, obtuse at apex. Flowers small, in short axillary cymes or fascicles, pale green, 4-merous; calyx with a short tube; corolla trumpet-shaped; disk annular; stamens 4, inserted on the corolla throat; ovary inferior, 2-locular with 7-8 ovules in each cell, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a globose berry, about 2 cm in diameter, purplish-black, on a stalk 10-15 mm long. Seeds embedded in the placentae, imbricate, flattened, about 6 mm × 5 mm; testa areolate. D. singulare grows in lowland rain forest. In Indo-China it bears fruits in February. Discospermum javanicum (Miquel) O. Kuntze has sometimes been incorrectly treated as a synonym of D. singulare , from which it is distinguished by its much smaller ellipsoid fruits with few seeds in each locule.

5, 15, 28, 30.

M.S.M. Sosef