Knema latifolia Warb., Mon. Myrist. (1897)

Latin for 'with broad leaves'.

Synonyms
Knema nitida Merr.
Knema umbellata Warb.
Knema winkleri Merr.
Myristica umbellata (Warb.) Boerl.

Diagnostics
Understorey tree up to 20 m tall and 24 cm dbh. Bole without buttresses; crown cylindrical or pyramidal; bark nearly smooth, peeling in narrow strips; inner bark brittle, pinkish, red, or light brown; wood off-white, pale yellow, or pinkish. Leaves very glossy green above, grey-green or glaucous beneath; midrib yellow-green, drying brown to red-brown beneath. Flowers outside (yellowish) green, yellowish inside. Fruits yellow or (orange-)brown, the furry greyish to rusty.

Description
Tree 4-20 m. Twigs (1-)2-3 mm diameter, at first with minute greyish hairs 0.1 mm long, early glabrescent; bark finely or coarsely striate, sometimes faintly cracking, not flaking. Leaves (thinly) coriaceous, (elliptic-)oblong to obovate-oblong, (7-)10-30 by (2.5-)4.5-12.5 cm, apex broadly acute(-acuminate) or subobtuse, base attenuate to rounded; greenish brown to blackish, often glossy above; lower surface grey or pinkish brown, at first with sparse stellate scale-like hairs 0.1 mm long, early glabrescent; dots absent; midrib +/- raised above; nerves 8-16 pairs, slightly raised above; venation distinct above; petiole 15-30 by 2-4 mm. Inflorescences: sessile or pedunculate up to 5 mm, brachyblast simple or 2-4-furcate, to 8 mm long; in male 5-15-flowered, female 1-5- flowered; flowers with grey-brown stellate hairs 0.1(-0.2) mm long or less, subglabrescent; perianth 3- (or 4-)lobed, pale yellowish inside (always?). Male flowers: pedicel 5-10 mm long, bracteole subpersistent, subapical; buds depressed globose or broadly (ob)ovoid, +/- trigonous, 2.5-3.5 by 3.5-5 mm, cleft 4/5(-5/6), lobes 0.5-1 mm thick; staminal disc sharply 3- (or 4-)angled, flat or slightly convex, 2-2.5 mm diameter; anthers 3 (or 4), sessile below the angles of the disc, horizontal, 0.5-1 mm long, not touching; androphore slender, 0.5-1 mm long. Female flowers: pedicel (4-)5-10 mm long, bracteole median or above; buds ellipsoid-obovoid, with a faint constriction below the middle, 5-7 by 4 mm, cleft 2/3-3/4, lobes 1 mm thick; ovary ovoid, 2-2.5 mm long; style 0.5-0.8 mm long; stigma fleshy, +/- 2-lobed and each lobe again (2-)3-5-lobulate. Fruits 1 or 2 per infructescence, globose-ellipsoid or ellipsoid-oblong, somewhat flattened, often ridged, often somewhat saccate at base, 2-3.5 by 2-3 cm; dry pericarp 2-3 mm thick, with grey to rusty hairs 0.1-0.2 mm long, subglabrescent; fruiting pedicel 7-20 mm long. [from Flora Malesiana]

Ecology
Primary or degraded lowland forest; forest on hill sides, ridges, low undulating ground, sometimes (peat-)swamp forest; mixed dipterocarp forest, Agathis forest; on loam-, clay-, sand-, acid-, and lime-containing soils; 0-500 m altitude.

Distribution
Sumatra, Borneo.

Local names
Borneo: Darah-darah, Pendarahan.