Wikstroemia androsaemifolia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Wikstroemia androsaemifolia Decaisne

Family: Thymelaeaceae

• Wikstroemia candolleana Meisner,
• W. junghuhnii Miquel,
• W. spanoghii Decaisne.

• Indonesia: baku-bakuan (Madura).

Southern China, Thailand, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sulawesi, Java, Madura, Kangean Archipelago, Flores, Timor and Irian Jaya.

The trunk contains patches of a kind of incense wood ("chandan"). The wood smells and is used like agar wood ( Aquilaria malaccensis Lamk) to make incense sticks. On Madura a poultice of the leaves is used to cure skin wounds on buffaloes.

• Shrub, up to 2.5 m tall, stem diameter up to 4 cm, branches red-brown, axillary buds covered with golden-brown hairs.
• Leaves opposite, papery; petiole 2 mm long; blade elliptical to ovate-oblong-lanceolate, 2-8 cm × 1-4 cm with prominent veins below.
• Inflorescence a raceme, 4-10-flowered, usually 3 together at the top of a branchlet (1 terminal, 2 axillary); peduncle up to 3.5 cm long, pedicel 1 mm long.
• Flowers yellow-green, 4-merous, tubular; floral tube (hypanthium) 9-12 mm long, ending in 4, fleshy, oblong lobes up to 3.5 mm long; sepaloid appendages absent; stamens 8 in 2 whorls of 4; pistil with ellipsoid ovary, obscure style 1 mm long and globose stigma.
• Fruit an ellipsoid, red drupe.

W. androsaemifolia occurs in grassy fields, brushwoods and open forest, from sea-level up to 2400 m altitude and its vegetative parts are rather variable.

• 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.).
• Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam [Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam] (various editors), 1960- . Vol. 1-28. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire de Phanérogamie, Paris, France.
• 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. W. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage/Bandung, the Netherlands/Indonesia. 1660 pp.).
• van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950- . Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4- . Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands.

P.C.M. Jansen