Syzygium caudatum (Merr.) Airy Shaw, Kew Bull. (1949)
Latin for 'tailed', referring to the long leaf tip.
Synonyms
Eugenia caudata (Merr.) Burgess
Eugenia rhynchophylla Merr.
Syzygium aphanomyrtoides Merr. & Perry
Syzygium rhynchophyllum (Merr.) Merr. & Perry
Tetraeugenia caudata Merr.
Diagnostics
Sub-canopy tree up to 28 m tall and 60 cm dbh. Stipules absent. Leaves
opposite, simple, penni-veined, venation conspicuous to inconspicuous, glabrous.
Flowers ca. 4 mm diameter, yellow-pinkish, with protruding stamens, flowers
placed in panicles. Fruits ca. 38 mm diameter, green-reddish, fleshy berries.
Description
Canopy or subcanopy tree to 28 m tall and 60 cm diameter with orange-brown smooth hoop-marked
bark. Parts hairless. Twig c.1 mm diameter, slender, slightly angled at first below nodes
otherwise round, pale grey-brown or occasionally cream, smooth. Leaf blade c.7 x 2.5(4-8 x 1.5-4)
cm, lanceolate, thinly leathery, drying dull greenish; base wedge-shaped, tapering into 6 mm
short slender stalk, acumen c.1 cm sharply caudate; densely distinctly pitted above and minutely
pale dotted or pimpled beneath; veins unequal, c.6 main pairs, hardly visible as also tertiaries
on either surface, slightly furrowed above, spreading; intramarginal veins 2(-3), the main 2-3 mm
within margin, looped. Panicle terminal or axillary, to 3 cm long, slender, 2-branched, few-flowered.
Flower bud to 5 x 2 mm, minute, with tiny paired triangular bracteoles, club-shaped with distinct
slender pseudostalk; sepal lobes 4, ovate-triangular, minute, thick, cupped; stamens and style
short, stamens 4 only. Fruit to 3.8 x 2.5 cm, ellipsoid, with c.4 mm diameter apical calyx rim,
ripening red. [from Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak]
Ecology
In mixed dipterocarp forest on yellow sandy and sandy clay soils near the coast, and on humic
soils at 650-1700 m in upper dipterocarp forest and lower montane pole forest; on dacite in the
Hose mountains and Usun Apau, basalt on the Linau-Balui plateau, ultramafics sometimes on
Kinabalu, and on limestone in Mulu N.P.
Distribution
Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo.
Local names
Borneo: Ubah.
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