Melicope bonwickii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Melicope bonwickii (F. v. Mueller) T.G. Hartley

Protologue: Sandakania 4: 56 (1994).

Synonyms

• Euodia bonwickii F. v. Mueller (1865),
• Euodia speciosa Reichenb.f. & Zoll. ex Teijsm. & Binnend. (1867),
• Euodia villamilii Merr. (1914).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: abal (Madurese), awal (Javanese)
• Philippines: kamal (Tagalog).

Distribution

Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Borneo, the Philippines, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, New Guinea and north-eastern Australia.

Uses

In Java the bark is used as a leech repellent. In the Tanimbar Islands the plant is said to be used to treat dysentery.

Observations

• A tree up to 40 m tall, young branchlets glabrous to rarely sparsely hairy, terminal bud appressed hairy.
• Leaves opposite, 3-foliolate, 14-40 cm long, leaflets elliptical to obovate, 10-30 cm × 5-15 cm, glabrous or sparsely hairy on veins below.
• Inflorescence on branchlets below the leaves, rarely axillary, glabrous to sparsely hairy, 3.5-10 cm long.
• Flowers bisexual, stamens 4, filaments glabrous.
• Fruit sparsely hairy to almost glabrous, follicles nearly round to obovoid, 4-6 mm long, exocarp dry.
• Seeds nearly round to ellipsoid or hemispherical, 3-4.5 mm long.

M. bonwickii occurs in primary and secondary forest on well-drained and alluvial soils from sea-level up to 900 m altitude.

Selected sources

320, 334, 731, 877, 883. medicinals

Main genus page

• Melicope

Authors

• Juliasri Djamal & J.L.C.H. van Valkenburg