Salix tetrasperma (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Salix tetrasperma Roxb.

Family: Salicaceae

Synonyms

• Salix azaolana Blanco,
• S. horsfieldiana Miquel.

Vernacular names

• Indian willow (En)
• Indonesia: dalu-dalu, leri
• Malaysia: dedalu india, sendalu, nalu air
• Philippines: bai-bai.
• Burma (Myanmar): momaka
• Cambodia: sâmpaèt
• Laos: kh'aiz kha:w, kh'aiz ngi:wz, kh'aiz nunz (north-western)
• Thailand: khlai (Pattani), khrai nun (Northern), sanun (Central).

Distribution

From Afghanistan and the Punjab eastwards throughout South-East Asia and southern China; in Malesia in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali and Nusa Tenggara), East Kalimantan and the Philippines. In Peninsular Malaysia, only the male sex has been introduced.

Uses

Planted on the bunds of wet rice fields in Peninsular Malaysia for soil protection. Also planted in regularly pollarded and coppiced hedges to delimit field boundaries. Used medicinally as a febrifuge. The timber is occasionally used for construction purposes, wash tubs and other household utensils.

Observations

• Shrub or tree, up to 25 m tall, usually smaller.
• Leaves elliptical to lanceolate, (6-)8-16(-24) cm × (2-)2.5-4(-6) cm.
• Inflorescence a catkin on the branches of the previous flush, on short twigs; male ones more or less pendulous, 4-12 cm long, female ones more straight, 4-12 cm long.

Found along watercourses and banks of pools and lakes, in Sumatra up to 1500 m altitude, in the Philippines to medium altitudes. S. tetrasperma is generally grown from cuttings.

Selected sources

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd Edition. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.
• Corner, E.J.H., 1988. Wayside trees of Malaya. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. The Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 774 pp.
• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Series 1. Volume 1, 4-. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
• Reyes, L.J., 1938. Philippine woods. Technical Bulletin No 7. Commonwealth of the Philippines, Department of Agriculture and Commerce. Bureau of Printing, Manila, the Philippines. 536 pp. + 88 plates.

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef & L.J.G. van der Maesen