Madhuca utilis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Madhuca utilis (Ridley) H.J. Lam ex K. Heyne

Protologue: Nutt. pl. Ned. Ind., ed. 2: 1231 (1927).

Synonyms

• Payena utilis Ridley (1918),
• Madhuca stenophylla H.J. Lam (1925),
• Isonandra utilis (Ridley) Baehni (1965).

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: bitis, seminai, belian (Peninsular).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and northern Borneo.

Uses

The timber is used as bitis, for heavy constructional work, paving blocks, agricultural implements and turnery. The oil from the seeds is used locally in Sumatra for cooking.

Observations

• A large tree up to 50 m tall with bole up to 1 m in diameter and buttresses up to 2 m high.
• Leaves closely clustered at tips of twigs, obovate to spatulate, 4-12.5(-18) cm × 1.5-6 cm, secondary veins joined in irregular arches near margin, glabrous and glaucous beneath, stipules up to 3 mm long, caducous.
• Flowers with sepals yellowish-brown woolly outside and glabrous inside except near tips, 8-9-lobed corolla sparsely woolly outside and glabrous inside except between stamens, 10-16 stamens and glabrous ovary.
• Fruit ellipsoid to fusiform, 3.5-5.5 cm × 1.5-3 cm, with woody or fleshy pericarp, 1-seeded.
• Seed 3-4 cm long, with thin, brown testa and very large greyish scar, endosperm very thin or absent, cotyledons thick.

M. utilis is locally common, particularly in Peninsular Malaysia, in lowland primary forest; also found in swampy forest. The wood is dark red-brown, often with a purplish tinge. The density is 920-1200 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

36, 100, 102, 190, 318, 359, 432, 578, 581, 699, 733, 779, 781, 792.

Main genus page

• Madhuca (Timbers)

Authors

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

Authors

J. Kartasubrata (general part), N. Tonanon (properties), R.H.M.J. Lemmens (properties, selection of species) & R. Klaassen (wood anatomy)