Syzygium palawanense (C.B.Rob.) Merr. & Perry, Mem. Amer. Ac. 18 (1939)
Latin for 'from Palawan', a Philippine island near northern Borneo.Synonyms
Eugenia duthieana Ridl.
Eugenia palawensis C.B.Rob.
Syzygium duthieana (Ridl.) Masamune
Diagnostics
Mid-canopy tree up to 34 m tall and 66(-80) cm dbh. Stipules absent. Leaves
opposite, simple, penni-veined, venation conspicuous, glabrous. Flowers ca. 9 mm
diameter, white-yellowish, with protruding stamens, flowers placed in panicles.
Fruits ca. 10 mm diameter, green-white-yellow-reddish, fleshy berries.
Description
Canopy tree to 34 m tall, and 80 cm diameter; bark smooth, eventually roughly scaly, red-brown;
inner bark warm brown. Parts hairless. Twig c.2 mm diameter apically, compressed and grooved not
angled, grey-brown, smooth. Leaf blade c.9 x 4(6-20 x 3-9) cm, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate,
leathery, drying dull tawny above, chocolate-brown beneath; densely obscurely pimpled above,
obscurely dotted beneath; base narrowly wedge-shaped, long tapering into 5-10 cm black-drying
stalk, acumen to 15 mm slender caudate; veins unequal, main veins c.9 pairs, raised thoughout
but more prominent beneath, sunk in furrows above, spreading; tertiaries faint, evident but hardly
raised on either surface; intramarginal veins 2-3, the main well within margin, looped. Panicle
to 3-terminal but mostly axillary, to 7 cm long, c.2 mm diameter at base, generally slender,
sparsely doubly branched, main branches long straight, the flowers clustered at the tips. Flower
bud to 8 x 5 mm including 4 mm pseudostalk, broadly clove-shaped becoming trumpet shaped in flower,
sepal lobes 4, rounded and hiding corolla in bud, thick, breaking off at anthesis leaving an even
rim; stamens many, short, style extending 5 mm. Fruit to 11 x 11 mm, spherical, smooth, with
c.4 mm diameter apical sepal crown. [from Tree Flora of Sabah and Sarawak]
Ecology
In undisturbed mixed dipterocarp, coastal, mangrove, and sub-montane forests
up to 1700 m altitude. Usually on hillsides and ridges on sandy to ultrabasic
soils.
Distribution
Borneo, Philippines (Palawan).
Local names
Borneo: Obah.
