Xylopia vielana (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Xylopia vielana Pierre

Family: Annonaceae

Vernacular names

• Indo-China: gien do, kray lan, krat
• Vietnam: cây dền
• Thailand: kluai noi, taa laeo, sa thaang (eastern).

Distribution

Thailand and Indo-China.

Uses

The seeds are very aromatic and its essential oil might be extractable. The wood is yellow, rather hard and very flexible but only suitable for indoor construction and to make utensils. The tree also has ornamental value.

Observations

• Evergreen tree, 20-25 m tall, with reddish bark.
• Leaves alternate, entire, simple; petiole 5-8 mm long, pubescent; blade ovate-oblong, 5-9 cm × 3-4 cm, herbaceous, pubescent.
• Flowers solitary or 2-3 together in leaf axils; pedicel 0.5 cm long; calyx tubular, 3-lobed, fleshy, hairy outside; petals 6, linear, 6-12 mm long, purplish, tomentose; stamens numerous, arranged spirally, the outer ones staminodial; gynoecium consisting of 8-10 separate carpels, each with a hairy, 6-ovuled ovary and a fleshy, oblong, hairy style.
• Fruit (matured carpel) berry-like, torulate, the ventral side straight, 2-3 cm long, purplish, pubescent.
• Seed ovoid, usually 3 per carpel, with a purplish aril and ruminate endosperm.

X. vielana often occurs in small patches of forest in cultivated or cleared areas. It flowers in June-July and resembles X. malayana Hook.f. & Thomson which has a wider distribution in South-East Asia.

Selected sources

• 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.).
• Lecomte, M.H. & Gagnepain, F. (Editors), 1907-1950. Flore générale de l'Indo-Chine [General flora of Indo-China]. 7 volumes and supplements. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.
• Pierre, J.B.L., 1880-1907. Flore forestière de la Cochinchine [Forest flora of Cochinchina]. 4 volumes in 26 parts. Octave Doin, Paris, France.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen