Knema glauca (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Knema glauca (Blume) Warb.

Family: Myristicaceae

Synonyms

• Knema cinerea (Poir.) Warb. var. glaucescens auct., non (Blume) J. Sinclair,
• Knema palembanica (Miq.) Warb.,
• Myristica glauca Blume.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: kayu bedarah (Palembang, Sumatra), ki mokla (Sundanese), theureu pote (Madurese).

Distribution

Peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali).

Uses

Oil pressed from the seed has been used for illumination. The wood is utilized like that of other members of Myristicaceae as "penarahan" timber, suitable particularly for indoor construction, and for firewood.

Observations

• A dioecious tree, up to 30 m tall, with coarsely striate bark, not tending to crack or flake, sometimes with 1 m tall stilt roots.
• Leaves alternate, simple, membranous or chartaceous; petiole 7-20 mm long; blade elliptical to lanceolate, 6-25 cm × 2-11 cm, base rounded to attenuate, apex obtuse to acuminate, veins 12-25 pairs, venation distinct above.
• Inflorescence looking like a compound umbel, knob-like (brachyblast), sessile or peduncle up to 3 mm long; brachyblast simple or 2-3-fid, up to 15 mm long; male ones 2-20-flowered, female ones 1-8-flowered.
• Flowers with 3-4-lobed perianth, reddish or yellowish inside; male flowers with pedicel 4-10 mm long, buds subglobose, 2.5-3.5 mm in diameter, androphore 0.5-1 mm long, staminal disk flat to faintly convex, circular, 1.5-2.5 mm in diameter, sometimes finely papillate, anthers 8-15, subsessile to stiped, spaced, 0.3-0.5 mm long, more or less horizontal, the connective broad or narrow above, the thecae opening nearly laterally; female flowers with pedicel 1-6 mm long, buds ovoid-ellipsoid or obovoid-cylindrical, 4-6 mm long, cleft to about halfway, ovary ovoid, 1.5-2.5 mm long, stigma subsessile on ovary, flat to erect, 2-lobed and each lobe again 2-4-lobed.
• Infructescence with 1-4 yellowish fruits; fruit a unicarpellate capsule on stalk 3-12 mm long, subglobose to ovoid or ellipsoid, 2-4 cm × 1.5-2.5 cm, pericarp finely granulate, 1.5-2.5 mm thick when dry.
• Seed subglobose to ellipsoid, up to 3.5 cm × 2 cm, white, surrounded by a bright red aril.

K. glauca occurs in primary and secondary evergreen forests, including mixed dipterocarp forest, forest edges, riverine forest, periodically inundated forest and thickets, from sea-level up to 1500 m altitude, on various soils (sandstone, clay, lateritic, granitic, black, limestone, alluvial sand). It flowers and fruits year-round. The seeds contain about 40% fat which has a melting point of 40 °C. Trees in Borneo, not growing taller than 12 m, with narrow, membranous leaves and bright brown fruits on a 1 cm long stalk have been classified as var. riparia W.J. de Wilde.

Selected sources

8, 42, 56, 59. oils