Diospyros sumatrana Miq., Pl. Jungh. (1851-55)

Synonyms
Diospyros beccarii Hiern.
Diospyros clavigera C.B.Clarke
Diospyros decipiens C.B.Clarke
Diospyros dumosa King & Gamble
Diospyros flavicans Hiern
Diospyros glomerulata King & Gamble
Diospyros graciliflora Hiern
Diospyros hendersonii Ridl.
Diospyros koordersii Hiern ex Koord.
Diospyros monticola Kosterm.
Diospyros tubicalyx Ridl.
Ebenus beccarii (Hiern) Kuntze
Ebenus sumatrana (Miq.) Kuntze

Diagnostics
Sub-canopy tree up to 27 m tall and 30 cm dbh. Stipules absent. Leaves alternate, simple, penni-veined. Flowers ca. 3 mm diameter, yellow, with corolla tube, placed in bundles in leaf axils. Fruit ca. 15 mm long, black, fleshy berry.

Description
Tree to 30 m tall and 30 cm diameter. Twigs hairy when young, becoming glabrous with age. Leaves chartaceous, finely hairy below to glabrous, tending to darken above on drying, not subglaucous below; elliptic, ovate, oblong or obovate, 3.5-16(-17) x 1.3-7 cm, base cuneate, margin not undulate, apex acuminate; midrib sunken to prominent above; lateral veins prominent below, 5-9 pairs, arching and diminishing toward leaf margin or sometimes linked near leaf margin to form an intramarginal vein-loops; intercostal venation prominulous below, vaguely scalariform to vaguely reticulate; petiole 0.2-0.7 cm long. Male inflorescences c. 0.2 cm long, each bearing about 3 subsessile flowers. Male flowers with calyx divided into 4 triangular valvate leafy lobes; corolla salverform, c. 1 cm long. Female inflorescences c. 0.2-0.5 cm long, each bearing 1-3 subsessile flowers. Female flowers with calyx divided into 4 broadly ovate valvate leafy lobes. Fruits usually solitary, subsessile (stalks 0.2-0.5 cm long), ellipsoid or oblong, to c. 2.5 x 1.2 cm, mostly symmetric, sometimes asymmetrically curved, glabrous, smooth or shallowly lobed. Fruit calyx slightly accrescent; lobes leafy, erect or spreading, to c. 0.6 x 0.5 cm.

Ecology
In undisturbed mixed dipterocarp forests up to 1200 m altitude. On alluvial (riversides) and dry (hillsides and ridges) places on sandy soils, also on limestone.

Uses
The timber is used.

Distribution
India, Birma, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo.

Local names
Borneo: Entam, Kayu arang, Kayu malam.