Scolopia chinensis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Scolopia chinensis (Lour.) Clos

Family: Flacourtiaceae

Synonyms

Phoberos chinensis Lour., P. cochinchinensis Lour., Scolopia siamensis Warb.

Vernacular names

• Vietnam: bôm, ngâm xanh, gai bôm.

Distribution

Thailand, southern China, Indo-China. Occasionally also cultivated and sometimes naturalized elsewhere in the tropics, e.g. in India, Sri Lanka and Java.

Uses

The seed yields an oil, used e.g. in Indo-China, but no data on composition and characteristics are available. S. chinensis is planted to make hedges that are impenetrable because of its spines.

Observations

Evergreen shrub or small tree, 1-5 m tall, branches with strong simple spines 1-6 cm long. Leaves alternate, coriaceous; petiole 3-8 mm long; blade oblong-elliptical, 3-10 cm × 2-5 cm, base cuneate to rounded with 2 distinct basal glands, margin entire, apex acuminate to rounded, basal veins 3-5, secondary veins in 5-7 pairs. Inflorescence a few-flowered raceme, 2-6 cm long; pedicel up to 1 cm long; flowers 6-merous, bisexual, white-yellow, sepals and petals ovate, 2-3 mm long, receptacle with 10 disk glands, stamens 40-60, 4-5 mm long, pistil with ovoid ovary having 2 or 3 placentas each with 2 ovules, style 2-3 mm long, stigma obscurely 3-4-lobed. Fruit a berry, ellipsoid to subglobular, about 1 cm in diameter, containing 4-5 seeds. Seed about 4 mm long. S. chinensis grows in shrubby vegetation at low altitudes on sand or clay soils, also in swampy conditions, flowering in August, fruiting in October-November.

Selected sources

8, 19, 42, 71, 43, 113.