Knema psilantha W.J.deWilde, Blumea 25 (1979)

Latin for 'with hairless flowers'.

Diagnostics
Sub-canopy tree up to 27 m tall and 26 cm dbh. Stem with red sap. Stipules absent. Leaves alternate, simple, penni-veined, glabrous to hairy below, whitish below. Flowers ca. 8 mm diameter, red, placed in bundles. Fruits ca. 25 mm long, brownish, hairy, dehiscent capsules. Seeds with nearly undivided red aril.

Description
Tree 5-10(-27) m. Twigs 3-5 mm diameter, at tirst with woolly bright brown to yellowish hairs 0.5-1 mm long, soon glabrescent; bark striate or ridged, lower down cracking and tlaking. Leaves thinly coriaceous, lanceolate, 20-50 by 3.5-9.5 cm, apex (narrowly) acute, base obtuse or (broadly) rounded; drying greenish brown above; lower surface glabrous, inconspicuously finely papillate; dots absent; midrib raised above; nerves 30-35 pairs, raised above; venation raised, distinct or not; petiole 5-15 by 3-5 mm, late glabrescent. Inflorescences: sessile, brachyblast simple or +/- warted, 2-5 mm diameter; in male 5-25-flowered, female 1-5-flowered; flowers with pale brown hairs 0.5-0.7 mm long, early glabrescent in the upper half or more; perianth 3-lobed, red inside. Male flowers: pedicel 2-3 mm long, bracteole subpersistent, at or above the middle; buds ellipsoid-obovoid, 4.5-5 by 3-3.5 mm, cleft 3/4-4/5, lobes 0.5 mm thick; staminal disc circular. +/- flat, 1.5 mm diameter; anthers 6-9, each 0.5 mm long, stiped for 0.5-0.7 mm, +/- horizontal, not touching; androphore cylindrical, 1-1.2 mm long. Female flowers: pedicel 1-2 mm long, bracteole +/- caducous, median; buds much larger than in male flowers, ovoid, 8-9 by 5-5.5 mm, cleft c. 1/2, lobes 0.5 mm thick; ovary subglobose. 4.5 by 5 mm, stigma subsessile, +/- 2-lobed and each lobe again 5- or 6-lobulate or serrate. Fruits 1-3 per infructescence, subellipsoid, apex obtusish, base broadly rounded, 2.5-3 by 2 cm, with rough yellowish brown hairs 1 mm long, sometimes pardy glabrescent; dry pericarp 3 mm thick; fruiting pedicel 2 mm long. [from Flora Malesiana]

Ecology
In undisturbed mixed dipterocarp forests up to 300 m altitude. On hillsides and ridges.

Distribution
Borneo.

Local names
Borneo: Darah-darah, Kumpang.