Knema pubiflora W.J.deWilde, Blumea 25 (1979)
Latin for 'with soft hairy flowers'.
Diagnostics
Mid-canopy tree up to 40 m tall and 41 cm dbh. Bole with buttresses to 2 m high, extending
to 30 cm; bark smooth, when old peeling off in soft irregular small scales; living bark chocolate,
brown, or reddish; sapwood reddish white, pale brown, or pale pinkish; latex reddish. Flowers with
rusty indumentum. Fruits greenish or yellow, with rusty indumentum; aril dark red, sweet-acid.
Description
Tree 10-40 m. Twigs 1.5-3 mm diameter, at first with dense rusty scurfy hairs 0.1-0.2
mm long, glabrescent; bark coarsely striate, not tending to crack or flake. Leaves
chartaceous or thinly coriaceous, (ovate-)oblong, 4-15 by 1.5-7 cm, base rounded to
subattenuate, apex subacute to short acute-acuminate; drying dark brown above; lower
surface grey-brown, finely papillate, at first with mixed sessile and dendroid hairs 0.2-
0.5 mm long, persistent or late glabrescent; dots present; midrib slender, +/- raised above;
nerves 7-14 pairs, slightly raised above; venation distinct; petiole 5-10 by 0.7-2 mm,
late glabrescent. Inflorescences: peduncle to 2 mm long, brachyblast simple, warted, or
+/- forked, to 4 mm diameter; in male 5-20-flowered, female 3-10-flowered; flowers
with dark rusty hairs 0.1 mm long; perianth 3- (or 4-)lobed, inside densely stellate-hairy,
colour not known. Male flowers: pedicel 10-15 mm long, bracteole persistent or more
or less late caducous, about median; buds (depressed) globose, 2-2.5 by 2.5-3 mm, cleft
3/4-4/5, lobes 0.5(-0.7) mm thick; staminal disc convex, circular, 1.2-1.5 mm diameter;
anthers 10-13, just sessile, horizontal, 0.2-0.4 mm long, not touching; androphore
0.3-0.6 mm long. Female flowers: pedicel 7-10 mm long, bracteole +/- median; buds
obovoid or pear-shaped, 3-4 by 3-4 mm, cleft 1/2-2/3, lobes 0.5-1 mm thick; ovary
subglobose-ovoid, 1.5 mm diameter; stigma sessile, indistinctly 2-lobed and each lobe
again deeply (3- or) 4- or 5-lobulate. Fruits 1-5 per infructescence, subglobose or short
ellipsoid, often +/- flattened and ridged at one side towards the base, 1.5-2.5 by 1.5-2.3
cm, with rusty hairs 0.1-0.2 mm long; dry pericarp 1.5 mm thick; fruiting pedicel 10-14
mm long. [from Flora Malesiana]
Ecology
Forest on sandy soil, clay, or loam, also on brown soil; hill sides, ridges, rolling sandy
areas; in Shorea laevifolia forest, scattered but locally common; 0-300 m altitude.
Distribution
Borneo.
Local names
Borneo: Darah-darah, Gamousu, Kumpang, Pala, Tali makas.
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