Chaetocarpus castanocarpus (Roxb.) Thwaites - EUPHORBIACEAE

Synonym : Chaetocarpus castanaecarpus var. genuinus DC.
Adelia castanicarpa Roxb.
Regnaldia cluyticides H.Bn.
Regnaldia myrtioides Hooker
Gaedawakka castanocarpa (Roxb.) Kuntze

English   Lao   

Botanical descriptions Habitat and ecology Distribution

Botanical descriptions :

Diagnostic characters : Two big and falcate stipules. Flowers small, fragrant, grouped in axillary fascicles. The fruit is a capsule densely hirsute with red arillate seeds.
Habit : Evergreen tree up to 45 m high. Branches ascending to main trunk. Crown large.
Trunk & bark : Trunk straight, stout with several knobs. Bark smooth lenticellate, grey or whitish-grey, inner bark thick, greyish-yellow.
Branches and branchlets or twigs : Twigs terete, glabrous.
Exudates : Exudate absent.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate distichous, ovate to elliptic, 7-15 by 3-5 cm, apex acute, acuminate, base attenuate, margin entire, blade coriaceous, glabrous.
Midrib flat above, primary vein single, secondary veins oblique to the midrib, widely parallel, tertiary veins finely reticulate. Petiole pubescent.
Stipules wide and falcate in shape, hairy at base.
Inflorescences or flowers : Inflorescence axillary, densely hirsute; flower unisexual, greenish yellow to white yellow to yellow, axillary and fasciculate.
Fruits : Capsule densely spiny to bristly, rounded of 0.8-1.8 cm in diameter, dehiscent in three valves.
Seeds : 1-4 seeds, black and shiny, with red aril.

Habitat and ecology :

Mixed with Pinus merkusii, Schima wallichii, Dipterocarpus obtusifolius and other Fagaceae species in remnant primary and secondary lowland forest.

Distribution :

Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia (Sumatra and Borneo), India (Assam), Malay Peninsula, Thailand (Andaman Islands), Vietnam and Laos (Vientiane and Khammouan provinces).

Remark/notes/uses :
The wood is used in building often house posts. The young leaves are cooked and consumed as vegetables.

Specimens studied :
BT 6, BT 195, BT 283, Ph 811 (Herbarium of Faculty of Sciences-NUoL, NHN-Leiden and CIRAD-Montpellier).

Literature :
Dung, Vu Van. 1996. Vietnam Forest Trees. Agriculture Publishing House, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Flore Générale de l’Indochine. 1925. Vol. 5, Fasc. 4. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire de Phanérogamie, Paris, France.
Kongkanda Chayamarit & Peter C. Van Welzen. 2005. Flora of Thailand, Vol. 8, part 1.The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand.

Top of the page