Urophyllum arboreum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Urophyllum arboreum (Reinw. ex Blume) Korth.

Family: Rubiaceae

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: ki cengkeh (Sundanese)

Distribution

Indonesia (West Java).

Uses

The bruised leaves smell strongly of cloves and are used as a spice and medicinally in Java. The wood can be used in house building and lasts 4-5 years when exposed.

Observations

• Dioecious treelet, up to 8 m tall and 10-15 cm in stem diameter.
• Leaves opposite, subglabrous; blade lanceolate, 10-15 cm × 2-5 cm, caudate-acuminate, when bruised smelling strongly of cloves.
• Inflorescence with 2 or more superposed whorls of flowers.
• Pedicel about 1 cm long; flowers unisexual; male flower with 5-toothed to almost entire calyx 3.5 mm long, corolla tube 1.5 mm long, 5 lobes 3.5 mm long, stamens 5 with subsessile anthers 0.5 mm long; female flower with campanulate calyx, corolla with lobes up to 4 mm long, pistil with 1 mm style and 5 stigmatic branches.
• Fruit a 5-celled berry, globose, 5-7 mm in diameter.

U. arboreum occurs in forest at 200-1200 m altitude. It is closely related and has been considered as conspecific to the wider occurring U. glabrum Wallich, whose bruised leaves, however, do not smell of cloves and do not contain eugenol.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters‑Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963), 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965), 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968), 761 pp.

• Burkill, I.H., 1935. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2 volumes. Crown Agents for the Colonies, London, United Kingdom. 2402 pp. (slightly revised reprint, 1966. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.).

• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd edition, 3 volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp. (3rd edition, 1950. van Hoeve, 's‑Gravenhage/Bandung, the Netherlands/Indonesia. 1660 pp.).

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen