Aglaia elliptica Blume, Bijdr. (1825)

Latin for 'elliptic'.

Synonyms
Aglaia antonii Elmer
Aglaia apoana Merr.
Aglaia banahaensis Elmer ex Merr.
Aglaia baramensis Merr.
Aglaia caulobotrys Quisumb. & Merr.
Aglaia cinnamomea Baker f.
Aglaia clementis Merr.
Aglaia davaoensis Elmer
Aglaia harmsiana Perkins
Aglaia havilandii Ridl.
Aglaia inaequalis Teijsm. & Binn.
Aglaia lagunensis Merr.
Aglaia lancifolia (Hook.f.) Harms
Aglaia langlassei C.DC.
Aglaia longipetiolata Elmer
Aglaia marginata Craib
Aglaia menadonensis Koord.
Aglaia micrantha Merr.
Aglaia mindanaensis Merr. ex Elmer
Aglaia moultonii Merr.
Aglaia negrosensis Merr. ex Elmer
Aglaia ovata Teijsm. & Binn.
Aglaia oxypetala Valet.
Aglaia palawanensis Merr.
Aglaia pauciflora Merr.
Aglaia querciflorescens Elmer
Aglaia reinwardtii Miq.
Aglaia robinsonii Merr.
Aglaia rufa Miq.
Aglaia rufa var. celebica Miq.
Aglaia sorsogonensis Elmer
Aglaia stapfii Koord.
Aglaia tayabensis Merr.
Aglaia tembelingensis M.R.Hend.
Aglaia trunciflora Merr.
Aglaia urdanetensis Elmer ex Merr.
Aglaiopsis lancifolia (Hook.f.) Miq.
Hearnia elliptica (Blume) C.DC.
Hearnia lancifolia (Hook.f.) C.DC.
Hearnia villosa C.DC.
Milnea dulcis Teijsm. & Binn.
Milnea lancifolia Hook.f.

Description
Tree 2-20(-40) m, with an irregularly rounded crown. Up to 50 cm in diam., sometimes fluted throughout, with L-shaped buttresses upwards up to 150 cm, outwards up to 100 cm and up to 45 cm thick. Bark dark reddish-brown or greenish-brown with shallow pits, inner bark magenta; sapwood pale yellow pinkish-red or dark reddish-brown; latex while. Branches patent or ascending. Twigs densely covered with usually reddish-brown, pale orange brown or yellowish-brown stellate hairs or scales, sometimes with pale brown or reddish-brown peltate scales which have a limbriate margin. Leaves imparipinnate. 15-65 cm long, 12-60 cm wide; petiole 3-10 cm, petiole, rachis and petiolules densely covered with stellate hairs or scales like those on the twigs. Leaflets (5-)7-11(-16 in rheophytic form in Borneo), 5-34.5 by 1-11 cm, young leaves yellowish-green turning darker green when mature, usually elliptical (narrowly elliptical in the rheophytic form) or oblanceolate-oblong, rarely oblong, the apex acuminate or acuminate-caudate, cuneate or rounded at the sometimes asymmetrical base, the young leaves densely covered with hairs and stellate scales like those on the twigs on both surfaces, when mature the upper and lower surfaces sonictiines pitted, with hairs or stellate scales like tho.se on the twigs numerous on to densely covering the midrib and sometimes the lateral veins below, few on the rest of that surface; veins 6-19 on each side of the midrib; petiolules 4-20(-24) mm. Male inflorescence 23-50 cm long, 14- 60 cm wide; peduncle 1-10 cm. Peduncle, rachis and branches with indumentum like that on the twigs. Flowers up to 6.000, 1.2-1.5 mm long, 1-1.6 mm wide; pedicels 0.5-2 mm. with indumentum like the twigs. Calyx densely covered with brown stellate scales on the outside. Petals 5. Staniinal tube 0.5-0.75 mm long. 1 mm wide, shallowly cup-shaped, yellow, thickened inside below the insertion of the anthers, the apical margin shallowly or deeply 5-lobed (in the rheophytic form, the staminal tube is divided almost to the base into 5 lobes); anthers c. 0.4 mm long and 0.3 mm wide, yellow when immature, brown at anthesis, turning black later, ovoid, inserted just below the aperture and pointing towards the centre of the flower. Female inflorescence 13-37 cm long and 5-14 cm wide, with fewer branches and fewer flowers than in the male; peduncle 2-7 cm. Flowers 1.8-2.2 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, otherwise similar. Infructescence 5.5-30 cm long and 5-15 cm wide with few to 100 or more fruits, when numerous the fruits packed tightly together; peduncle up to 10 cm, peduncle, rachis. branches and fruitstalks with numerous stellate hairs and scales. Fruits 1.5-3.5(-5) cm long. 1.5-3 (-5) cm wide, bright pale green when young, orange when mature, obovoid or ellipsoid, indehiscent, with few to densely covered with reddish-brown stellate scales; pericarp 3-10 mm thick, inner surface shiny, orange, white latex present until fruit ripens, opening under pressure loculicidally along a longitudinal ridge encircling the fruit. Locules 2; septum persistent. Seeds 1 or 2, 2.2-2.8 cm long. 1-1.4 cm across, ovoid, the inner surface flattened; aril 2-3 mm thick, sometimes not quite complete on the antiraphe side, pinkish-orange, translucent, sweet or acidic tasting; with two layers beneath the aril, the outer hard, chestnut brown, the inner thin and membraneous, with the main vascular bundle running through the raphe and antiraphe, divaricately branching from the raphe over the sides of the seed. [from Flora Malesiana]

Ecology
In undisturbed mixed dipterocarp, sub-montane and swamp forests up to 2000 m altitude. Found in swamp forest, secondary and primary forest, river banks, along roads, edges of marshes and on periodically inundated land; on granite, clay, limestone, sandstone, sand.

Uses
Bark and leaves are used medicinally. Bark boiled and solution bathed is used against tumours; leaves are applied to wounds (Philippines, Mindanao). Fruits are edible, taste resembles that of the cranberry. The wood is hard and durable, used as timber in the Philippines, but the supply is scarce.

Distribution
Peninsular Burma and Thailand to New Guinea.

Local names
Borneo: Kalantupak, Lambunau, Langsat gajah, Langsat munyit, Madam bungau, Mambo, Mata kuching, Mata kuching munyit, Segara, Tapau.
Indonesia: tanglar (Javanese).
Philippines: melatumbaga (Tagalog), hagasan (Bisaya), mamonak (Sulu).