Madhuca laurifolia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Madhuca laurifolia (King & Gamble) H.J. Lam

Protologue: Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, sér. 3, 7: 176 (1925).

Synonyms

• Bassia laurifolia King & Gamble (1905),
• Madhuca rupicola (King & Gamble) H.J. Lam (1925).

Vernacular names

• Thailand: paduwa, puduwa (Malay, Songkhla).

Distribution

Southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra.

Uses

The timber is possibly used as nyatoh or bitis.

Observations

• A medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 35 m tall with columnar bole up to 50 cm in diameter, buttresses absent or small.
• Leaves evenly distributed or loosely clustered at tips of twigs, narrowly elliptical or obovate to lanceolate, 8.5-25 cm × 2.5-9 cm, secondary veins diminishing until inconspicuous near margin, glabrous, stipules up to 7 mm long, caducous.
• Flowers with sepals woolly outside and glabrous inside, 6-10-lobed corolla pubescent on middle line and at tips of the lobes outside and woolly between the stamens inside, (10-)13-16 stamens and a glabrous pistil.
• Fruit ellipsoid, 1.5-2 cm × 1 cm, with thin fleshy pericarp, 1-seeded.
• Seed with thin, dark brown testa, endosperm absent or thin, cotyledons thick.

M. laurifolia is closely related to M. penangiana and occurs scattered in lowland rain forest, up to 700 m altitude. The density of the dark red-brown wood is about 950 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

102, 190, 581, 733, 779, 781.

Main genus page

• Madhuca (Timbers)

Authors

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