Diospyros perfida Bakh. Gard. Bull. Straits Settlem. 7: 181 (1933)

Synonyms
None

Diagnostics
Canopy tree up to 25 m tall in lowland forests. Leaves alternate, ca. 12 x 4 cm, glabrous, venation clearly visible. Fruits unusual in that they are largely enclosed by persistant fleshy calyx lobes.

Description
Tree to 25 m tall. Leaves membranaceous, glabrous, tending to dry black on both sides; oblong-elliptic, (7.5-)12-25 x (2-)4.5-10 cm, base cuneate to slightly attenuate, margin not undulate, apex acuminate; midrib sunken above, prominent below, drying black; lateral veins prominent below, 8-11 pairs, arching and diminishing toward leaf margin; intercostal venation prominulous below, laxly scalariform; petiole c. 1 cm long. Male inflorescences 0.5-0.8 cm long, each bearing 3 crowded flowers. Male flowers with calyx divided into 4 imbricate rounded lobes; corolla salverform, c. 0.7 cm long. Female inflorescences c. 0.3 cm long, each bearing 1-3 flowers. Female flowers with calyx divided into 4 imbricate ovate lobes. Fruits usually solitary, on c. 0.5 cm long stalks, depressed globose, to c. 5 cm diameter, not ridged, symmetric, woody, finely velvety when young, becoming smooth and glabrous with age. Fruit calyx accrescent, rugose, woody, initially cup-shaped with 4-5 valvate rounded lobes tightly clasping the lower three-quarters of the fruit, then half as the fruit enlarges and finally forming a shallow tray when the fruit is fully grown; during the process of enlargement, the calyx lobes are stretched so that they look valvate in fruit; veins very faint or invisible.

Ecology
Forest. The specimen shown here was found on Gunung Lumut, a limestone dominated mountain in southern East Kalimantan.

Uses

Distribution
Borneo.

Local names
Borneo: Tuba api.