Strychnos ignatii Bergius
Family
Loganiaceae
Synonyms
Strychnos tieute Lesch., Strychnos ovalifolia Wallich ex G. Don, Strychnos beccarii Gilg.
Vernacular Names
| Malaysia | Akar ipoh, belai hitam, ipoh akar besar (Peninsular). |
| English | Saint Ignatius bean. |
| Indonesia | Pokru (Sundanese), cetek (Javanese), bina (Kalimantan). |
| Thailand | Phayaa mue lek (Krabi). |
| Philippines | Katbalonga (Tagalog), igasud (Bisaya), pepita-sa-katbalogan (Tagalog, Bisaya, Pampango/Kapampangan). |
| Vietnam |
Lo[af]ng n[af]n. |
| French |
Feves de Saint-Ignace. |
| Spanish |
Pepita de San Ignacio. |
Geographical Distributions
Strychnos ignatii is found in Indo-China, Hainan, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Java, Borneo and the south eastern Philippines (Biliran, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao).
Description
Strychnos ignatii is a liana which can grow up to 35 m long and with stem measuring up to 5 cm in diametre. The bark is densely and finely covered with lenticels, brown or grey and with simple tendrils.
The leaves are ovate or elliptical to lance-shaped, measuring 4-18(-22) cm x 2-9(-12) cm and with petiole 5-10 mm long.
The inflorescence is axillary and 10-20-flowered. The petal is 7-17 mm long where the tube is about 3 times longer than the lobes and with some long woolly hairs inside in the lower half.
The fruit is nearly spherical, measuring 4-12 cm in diametre and about 10-seeded. The seeds are lenticular to ellipsoid or orbicular, measuring 20-35 mm x 16-20 mm x 8-9 mm, silky to felty, or irregularly shaped like castor beans, which are about 20 mm x 10 mm x 10 mm and rough but smooth.
Ecology / Cultivation
Strychnos ignatii is usually found in dense forests, often in dipterocarp forests in sandy soil or in mixed rainforests, sometimes on river banks, up to 1500 m altitude.
Line Drawing / Photograph
References
- Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1.
