Knema elmeri Merr., Unif. Calif. Publ. Bot. 15 (1929)
Named after A.D.E. Elmer [1870-?], an American botanist working on the Philippine flora.
Diagnostics
Mid-canopy tree up to 36 m tall and 49 cm dbh. Stem with red sap. Stipules
absent. Leaves alternate, simple, penni-veined, hairy below, whitish below.
Flowers ca. 9 mm diameter, red-purple, placed in bundles. Fruits ca. 24 mm long,
orange, hairy, dehiscent capsules. Seeds with almost undivided red aril.
Description
Tree 5-15(-36) m, sometimes with stilt-roots. Crown rounded; no buttresses; bark
smooth, scaly, flaky, or cracky, hard; inner bark white, reddish, or red-brown; sapwood
brown. Leaves glossy dark green above, silvery beneath.Twigs +/- angled, 2-4(-5) mm in
diameter, at first with rusty hairs 0.1-0.2 mm long, glabrescent; bark grey-brown, tending to
crack longitudinally, later on flaking. Leaves chartaceous, elliptic to oblong(-oblanceolate),
12-32 by 4-13 cm, base rounded to acute, apex acute-acuminate; drying greenish or
light brown above, early glabrescent, lower surface with persistent, silvery to pale brown,
dense interwoven hairs 0.1-0.2 mm long, silky to the touch; midrib sunken to prominent
above; nerves 12-20(-25) pairs, (slightly) raised or flat above; venation distinct above;
petiole 8-18 by 2-4 mm. Inflorescences: sessile, brachyblast simple or irregularly warted,
up to 8 mm in diameter, in male 5-25-flowered, in female 2-7-flowered; flowers with
dense pale brown to rusty hairs 0.1 mm long, perianth 3-lobed, red or purple inside.
Male flowers: pedicel 7-14 mm long, bracteole subpersistent, about median; buds broadly
ovoid to depressed globose, often +/- sagged at base, 3-4 by 4-4.5 mm, cleft nearly to the
base, lobes 0.5-0.8 mm thick; staminal disc circular, distinctly convex in the centre,
2-2.5 mm in diameter; anthers 10-14, just sessile or stalked, horizontal, 0.3-0.6 mm,
not touching; androphore 0.5-0.8 mm, clasped by the somewhat thickened perianth base.
Female flowers: pedicel 1-2 mm long, bracteole about median; buds +/- ellipsoid, 6 mm
long, cleft about halfway, lobes 1 mm thick; ovary ellipsoid, 3 mm long; style 0-1 mm
long, stigma 2-lobed and each lobe again shallowly 2-3(-4)-lobulate. Fruits 1-6 per
infructescence, obovoid to ellipsoid(-oblong), apex obtuse or shortly beaked, 2-2.5 by
1.1-1.6 cm, with rusty hairs 0.1-0.2 mm; dry pericarp 2 mm thick; fruiting pedicel 1-5
mm long. [from Flora Malesiana]
Ecology
In undisturbed mixed dipterocarp to sub-montane forests up to 1500 m
altitude. Common along rivers and streams, but also on hillsides and ridges.
Usually on rich clay soils, but also on sandy and limestone soils.
Distribution
Borneo.
Local names
Borneo: Dara-dara, Darah-darah, Erak, Kumpang.
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