Mangifera griffithii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Mangifera griffithii Hook.f.

Protologue: Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23: 168 (1860).

Synonyms

• Mangifera sclerophylla Hook.f. (1876),
• Mangifera beccarii Ridley (1933).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: rawa-rawa (Sumatra, Kalimantan), asem raba (West Kalimantan), romian (South Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: rawa (Peninsular), bahab, wahab (Sabah).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo; also cultivated.

Uses

The wood is reputed to be used. The fruit is edible and has sweet dark orange-yellow pulp.

Observations

• A medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 40 m tall, with bole branchless for up to 25 m and up to 80 cm in diameter, buttresses absent, bark surface smooth to peeling off in small scales, lenticellate in long vertical rows, sometimes ringed with hoops, pale yellowish-brown to grey.
• Leaves broadly elliptical to elliptical-oblong or obovate-oblong, 8-18 cm × 3-7.5 cm.
• Inflorescence axillary, few-branched, pubescent.
• Flowers 4-merous, petals c. 2 mm long,creamy-white, with 3-5 ridges on the inner surface confluent at their bases, the central ridge with a thick, truncate appendix, disk cushion-like and broad, unequally lobed, one stamen fertile, staminodes minute.
• Fruit cylindrical-oblong or ovoid-oblong, up to 3.5(-4) cm long, glossy and smooth, greyish-purple but turning purplish-black with a rose-red blush near the base when fully ripe.

M. griffithii prefers temporarily inundated locations along rivers in lowland rain forest. Fruits are produced rather sporadically.

Selected sources

104, 162, 328, 463, 465, 673, 705. timbers

• See also Mangifera (PROSEA Fruits) for the Fruit use.