Latin for 'shrubby'.
Synonyms
Diospyros atra Merr.
Diospyros curtisii King & Gamble
Diospyros cymosa Ridl.
Diospyros frutescens var. kunstleri (King & Gamble) Bakh.
Diospyros globulifera Hiern
Diospyros kuhlii Zoll.
Diospyros kunstleri King & Gamble
Diospyros roi Lecomte
Maba forbesii Hiern
Diagnostics
Understorey tree up to 18 m tall and 18 cm dbh. Stipules absent. Leaves
alternate, simple, penni-veined, glabrous. Flowers ca. 2 mm in diameter, green,
with corolla tube, placed in stalked bundles in leaf axils. Fruit ca. 16 mm
long, green-black, fleshy berry.
Description
Tree to 18 m tall and 18 cm diameter. Twigs puberulous when young, becoming glabrous with age, sparsely
lenticellate, drying blackish. Leaves membranaceous, slightly bullate between veins, glabrous, not
subglaucous below; elliptic, 13-25(-35) x 4.5-10(-13.5) cm, base rounded to cuneate, margin not
undulate, apex acute to acuminate; midrib sunken above; lateral veins sunken above, prominent below,
6-11 pairs, faintly inarching and joining to form intramarginal vein-loops near leaf margin;
intercostal venation prominulous below, laxly reticulate; petiole 0.8-1.3 cm long. Male inflorescences
laxly branched, 1-2 cm long, each bearing 3-10 or more flowers. Male flowers with calyx deeply divided
into 4 narrowly triangular valvate lobes; corolla ovoid in bud, to c. 0.5 cm long. Female inflorescences
c. 0.8 cm long, each bearing 3-10 flowers. Female flowers with calyx divided into 4 plicate-auriculate
valvate lobes. Fruits in clusters of 1-3, on stalks of c. 0.8 cm long, globose, to c. 2 cm diameter,
symmetric, smooth, glabrous, often puckered on drying. Fruit calyx accrescent; lobes leafy coriaceous
and auriculate, c. 0.8 x 0.8 cm. [from Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak]
Ecology
In undisturbed forests up to 800 m altitude. On wet places along riversides
and hill sides, with clay soils.
Uses
The fruits are used as fish poison.
Distribution
Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Moluccas?
Local names
Borneo: Buah tubai, Kayu malam.
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