Diospyros pilosanthera Blanco, Fl. Filip. ed. 1 (1837)

Synonyms
Diospyros carthei Hiern
Diospyros cubica Bakh.
Diospyros elmeri Merr.
Diospyros helferi C.B.Clarke
Diospyros hiernii Koord.
Diospyros moonii Hiern
Diospyros nidus-avis Kosterm.
Diospyros pilosanthera var. chikusensis Ng
Diospyros pilosanthera var. elmeri (Merr.) Ng.
Diospyros pilosanthera var. helferi (C.B.Clarke) Bakh.
Diospyros pilosanthera var. nurii Ng
Diospyros pilosanthera var. polyalthioides (Hiern) Ng
Diospyros pilosanthera var. tayabensis (Merr.) Bakh.
Diospyros plicata Merr.
Diospyros polyalthioides Korth. ex Hiern.
Diospyros polyalthioides var. polyalthioides (Korth. ex Hiern.) Ng
Diospyros rubescens Koord. & Valeton
Diospyros tayabensis Merr.

Diagnostics
Mid-canopy tree up to 35 m tall. Stipules absent. Leaves alternate, simple, penni-veined, rather variable. Flowers ca. 5 mm in diameter, white-yellow, with corolla tube, placed in bundles in leaf axils. Fruit ca. 27 mm long, colour?, fleshy berry, often surrounded by wavy calyx.

Description
Tree to 35 m tall. Twigs slender to stout, reddish brown pubescent when young, glabrous when older, drying whitish, greyish or blackish. Leaves chartaceous to coriaceous, not bullate between veins, glabrous to velvety below, tending to dry black on upper or both sides; elliptic, oblong, oblong-elliptic or oblong-obovate, 5-30 x 2.5-12 cm, base cuneate, rounded, subcordate to slightly attenuate, margin not undulate, apex acuminate; midrib sunken above, glabrous below; lateral veins faint to prominent below, 5-20 pairs, inarching faintly to form multiple anastomosing loops near leaf margin; intercostal venation faint to prominent below, reticulate to vaguely scalariform; petiole 0.5-1.5 cm long. Male inflorescences c. 1 cm long, each bearing 5-12 clustered flowers. Male flowers with calyx divided one quarter to halfway into 4-5 triangular valvate lobes; corolla slender, salverform, to c. 0.7 x 0.2 cm. Female inflorescences 0.1-0.5 cm long, each bearing 1-5 flowers. Female flowers with calyx divided into 4-5 valvate lobes which range from small and simple to large and plicate. Fruits in clusters of 1-3, subsessile on 0.1-0.5 cm long stalks, globose to ovoid, 1.8-3.5 cm diameter, symmetric, not ribbed, woody, smooth to faintly vertically lobed, densely velvety when young, maturing velvety or glabrous. Fruit calyx not, slightly, or greatly accrescent; lobes spreading or reflexed, small and not exceeding the fruit in diameter to greatly enlarged and thrown into many folds covering the whole fruit; veins very faint to invisible.

Ecology
In undisturbed mixed dipterocarp forests up to 1600 m altitude. Mostly on hillsides, but also on alluvial places and ridges. On ultrabasic, sandy and clayey soils, also often on limestone.

Uses
The timber is used for furniture. The fruits are edible.

Distribution
Indo-China, Birma,  Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Philippines, Celebes, Moluccas, New Guinea.

Local names
Borneo: Harang-harang, Kayu arang, Kayu hitam, Kayu malam, Samuko, Tungun apoi.