Tetradium fraxinifolium (PROSEA)
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Introduction |
Tetradium fraxinifolium (Hook.) T.G. Hartley
- Family: Rutaceae
Synonyms
Evodia fraxinifolia (Hook.) Benth., Philagonia fraxinifolia Hook.
Distribution
Native and cultivated from Nepal east to northern Vietnam and south-western China, occasionally cultivated also elsewhere.
Uses
The seed yields an oil which fuels lamps in Indo-China. The wood can be utilized for indoor construction, but it is weak and not durable. The tree is also planted as a fodder crop and an ornamental.
Observations
Dioecious, usually evergreen tree, up to 12 m tall. Leaves opposite, imparipinnately compound with 2-7 pairs of subcoriaceous leaflets; petiolules 0-1 cm long, of terminal leaflet 1-3.5 cm; leaflet blade lanceolate to elliptical, 9-25 cm × 3-9 cm, base rounded to acute, margin crenulate, apex acuminate, conspicuously oil-dotted. Inflorescence subcorymbose, 7-24 cm long, pedicel 1-6 cm long, flowers 4-merous and unisexual; sepals triangular, up to 1.5 mm long, persistent in fruit, petals ovate-elliptical, 3-7 mm long, hooked adaxially at the apex, pale yellow to green; stamens 4, opposite the petals, functional ones about 1.5 times the length of the petals; pistil with 4-carpelled ovary, ovules 2 per carpel, carpels connate toward the base abaxially, free adaxially. Fruit consisting of 1-4, 2-seeded, dehiscing follicles that are compressed subglobose 0.5-1 cm in diameter, not beaked, connate toward the base abaxially. Seed subtrigonous, 4-5 mm long, shiny dark red-brown, firmly attached in the dehisced follicle to a rather thick, fleshy, funicular aril; outer testa spongy, inner testa bony, endosperm fleshy, copious. T. fraxinifolium grows in well-drained forests and thickets, at 750-3000 m altitudes. Little is known about the oil, only the presence of 2 triterpenes has been reported. Seed of T. sambucinum (Blume) T.G. Hartley, occurring in Peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Sumbawa), also yields a lamp oil.
Selected sources
19, 27, 53, 59.
