Anisoptera megistocarpa Slooten, Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg III, 8: 12 (1926)

Species name meaning for 'large fruits'.

Synonyms

Description
Tall buttressed tree. Twigs, leaf bud, stipule outside, petiole, nervation beneath, panicle, flower calyx and ovary densely persistently dark ferruginous scabrid pubescent; lamina beneath dark golden brown lepidote. Twig c. 5 by 3 mm apically, stout, ca. compressed, rugose, becoming dark brown verrucose. Buds to 8 by 5 mm, ovoid; stipules to 12 by 6 mm, fugaceous. Leaves (5.5-)9-20 by (2.5-)3.5-8 cm, narrowly oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate, thickly coriaceous; margin subrevolute; base obtuse; acumen to 1 cm long, tapering, downcurved; nerves 23-33 pairs, dense, spreading, with short secondary nerves, slender but prominent beneath, distinctly depressed above as also the midrib and subreticulate tertiaries; petiole 2-2.8 cm long, to 3 mm diameter, stout. Panicle to 12 cm long, terminal or axillary, pendent, irregularly laterally branched; branchlets to 3.5 cm long, bearing to 5 flowers. Flower white; buds to 8 by 3 mm, lanceolate; 2 longer sepals lanceolate, subacuminate; 3 shorter sepals narrowly deltoid, subcaudate. Stamens c. 60, subequal; filaments shorter than anther, filiform; anthers oblong, attenuate; appendages filiform, twice length of anthers. Stylopodium stoutly ovoid, pubescent, surmounted by a short but distinctly trifid style. Fruit pedicel to 3 by 2 mm. Calyx tube to 2 cm diameter, globose; 2 longer lobes to 22 by 3.8 cm. spatulate. obtuse, c. 6 mm wide at the base; 3 shorter lobes to 30 by 3 mm. linear. [from Flora Malesiana]

Ecology
Scattered in Mixed Dipterocarp forest on undulating land and low hills.

Uses

Distribution
Peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra.

Local names
Indonesia: Beurmen (Sumatra. Atjeh).
Malaysia: Mersawa merah, mersawa api, sepah petri (Malaya).