Syzygium samarangense (Blume) Merrill & L.M.Perry, J. Arnold Arbor. 19: 115 (1938)

Synonyms
Eugenia alba Roxb.
Eugenia javanica Lam.
Eugenia javanica var. parviflora Craib
Eugenia javanica var. roxburghiana Duthie
Eugenia samarangensis (Blume) O.Berg
Jambosa alba Blume
Jambosa javanica (Lam.) K.Schum. & Lauterb.
Jambosa obtusissima DC.
Jambosa samarangensis (Blume) DC.
Jambosa samarangensis var. heteromorpha Blume
Myrtus javanica (Lam.) Blume
Myrtus samarangensis Blume
Syzygium samarangense var. parviflorum (Craib) Chantaran. & J.Parn.

Diagnostics
A tropical tree growing to 15 m tall, with evergreen leaves 10-25 cm long and 5-10 cm broad. The flowers are white, 2.5 cm diameter, with four petals and numerous stamens. The fruit is a bell-shaped, edible berry, with colors ranging from white, pale green, or green to red, purple, or crimson, to deep purple or even black, 4-6 cm long in wild plants. The flowers and resulting fruit are not limited to the axils of the leaves, and can appear on nearly any point on the surface of the trunk and branches.

Description
Orchard tree to 20 m tall, eventually stout with smooth grey-brown bark and low buttresses. Parts hairless. Twig 2-3 mm diameter, round, brown, smooth or at first bluntly 4-ribbed. Leaf blade c.17 x 6(7-22x4-11) cm, elliptic to lanceolate or sometimes oblanceolate, papery-thin, drying dull or glistening dark tawny above, yellow-brown beneath; base narrowly rounded or wedge-shaped, abruptly joining c.5 mm long stalk, bluntly acuminate; minutely pitted above, densely indistinctly pimpled beneath; veins unequal, c.10 main pairs, slender but distinctly raised on both surfaces though more slender beneath, arched, ascending, sometimes slightly furrowed above; tertiaries evident on both surfaces; intramarginal veins 2, main vein 4-7 mm within margin, looped. Panicle up to 3 cm long, 1-branched, terminal to axillary-ramiflorous, few-flowered. Flower bud 13 x 8 mm, large, jambu-shaped tapering into 6 mm pseudostalk, becoming trumpet-shaped on flowering; sepal lobes 4, 6 x 7 mm, hemispherical, hyaline towards margins, overlapping and enclosing corolla, spreading into 15 mm rosette at flowering; stamens many, extending 25 mm, white, style c.4 cm. Fruit 4.5x6 cm, pear-shaped with wide sepal crown or depressed ring, ripening greenish-white to red. [Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak]

Ecology
Nowadays rarely found in the wild because it is generally cultivated. Lowland areas.

Distribution
Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo. Currently cultivated across the tropics.

Uses
It is mainly eaten as a fruit and also used to make pickles. In the cuisine of Indian Ocean islands, the fruit is frequently used in salads, as well as in lightly sauteed dishes.

Local names
Brunei: Jambu puteh.
English: Wax-apple, water apple, malay apple, Java apple
Indonesian: Jambu klampok.
Malay: Jambu air mawar.
Philippines: Makopa.
Thai: Chomphu-khieo.
Vietnamese: Roi.