Horsfieldia superba (Hook.f & Thomson) Warb., Mon. Myrist: 295 (1897)

Synonyms
Myristica superba Hook. f. & Thomson

Diagnostics
Mid-canopy tree up to 30 m tall. Stem with red sap. Stipules absent. Leaves alternate, simple, penni-veined, densely red-brownish hairy. Flowers ca. 1 mm diameter, brownish, placed in panicles. Fruits to ca. 55 mm long, yellow-orange, glabrous, warty, dehiscent capsules. Seeds with undivided orange aril.

Description
Tree 10-30 m. Twigs sometimes faintly angular, 5-8 mm diameter, late glabrescent, at first with dense, rusty, dendroid hairs 0.5-1 mm long, bark dark grey, striate, sometimes slightly cracking and flaking; lenticels usually many and conspicuous. Leaves usually in 2, sometimes in 3 rows (see note 2), coriaceous, (elliptic-)oblong, (17-)25- 40(-70) by (7.5-)10-18(-22) cm, base narrowly subcordate to short-attenuate, apex +/- blunt to acute-acuminate; upper surface drying dull olivaceous-brown with finely wrinkled structure, glabrescent (except sometimes midrib), lower surface with (bright) brown rather sparse to dense mealy indumentum of dendroid hairs of mixed size, (0.3-) 0.5-1 mm long, usually with many or few emerged hairs to 1.5 mm long; dots absent; midrib rather broad, flat above, pubescent or glabrescent; nerves 15-25(-30) pairs, flat or sunken above, lines of interarching fairly regular, not very distinct; venation faint on both surfaces; petiole 6-15 by 5-7 mm, late glabrescent; leaf bud 20-30 by 5-10 mm, with dense hairs 0.5-1.5 mm long. Inflorescences behind the leaves, with +/- dense, woolly. long-branched yellowish brown dendroid hairs 0.5-1 mm long; in male: rather many flowered, 2 or 3 times branched, 7-15 by 2.5-10 cm, peduncle 1-1.5 cm; in female: +/- few-flowered, somewhat branched, 2-5 cm long; bracts broadly ellipsoid, subacuteacuminate. up to 12 by 10 mm, densely pale brownish pubescent, caducous; flowers in male up to 5 in a cluster, glabrous, perianth 3- or 4-lobed, drying often with a grey bluish tinge, pedicel not articulated. Male flowers: pedicel slender, 1.5-3.5(-5) mm; buds ellipsoid to obovoid-ellipsoid, 6-7(-8) by 4-5 mm, base rounded to short-attenuate, cleft 1/5-1/4, lobes 0.4 mm thick; androecium elongate-ellipsoid, subcylindrical to triangular in cross section, (4-)4.5-5 by 2.2-2.5 mm, apex subtruncate. with a shallow 3-radiate crack, base subtruncate: thecae 32-40, completely sessile; androphore rather narrow, 0.1-0.4 mm long. Female flowers: pedicel stout, 2-3.5 mm long; buds ellipsoid, 7-8 by 4.5 mm, cleft c. 1/5, lobes rather coriaceous; ovary ovoid, slightly compressed. 4-4.5 by 3 mm, glabrous, stigma shallowly 2-lobed, broad, 0.5 by 1.5 mm. Fruits 1-3 per infructescence, broadly ovoid-ellipsoid, 3.8-5.5 by 2.8-4.5 cm, glabrous, +/- coarsely warty and wrinkled, pericarp 8-12 mm thick; fruiting pedicel stout, 3-6 mm long; perianth persistent. [from Flora Malesiana]

Ecology
Forest on alluvial soils, undulating country, also in swampy forest; 0-400 m altitude.

Distribution
Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra.

Local names