Smilax macrocarpa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Smilax macrocarpa Blume

Family: Smilacaceae

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: canar bokor, canar gede, canar minyak (Sundanese).

Distribution

Indonesia (Java).

Uses

Fruits eaten fresh or prepared.

Observations

• Robust liana, 5-15 m long, often armed with prickles.
• Flowers unisexual, in many flowered umbels.
• Fruiting umbels with 1-10 fruits.
• Fruit a globose to broadly obovoid berry, 3-4 cm in diameter, dark violet-red, very acid.
• Seeds 0-3.

Scattered in forests, up to 1000 m altitude.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., 1963 1968. Flora of Java. 3 Volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands.

• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd ed. 3 Volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp.

• Ungson, L.B. & Sastrapradja, S., 1976. Variation in Smilax species of Java. BIOTROP Bulletin 12: 1 24.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen