Lumnitzera littorea (Jack) Voigt.
Family
Combretaceae
Synonyms
L. coccinea Wight & Arn.
Vernacular Names
| Malaysia | Geriting merah (Sabah), teruntum merah (Peninsular, Sarawak). |
| Indonesia | Duduk agung (Javanese), randai (East Kalimantan), tarungtung (Sundanese). |
| Philippines | Tabao, tabau. |
| Cambodia | Kanhep, sdam’. |
| Thailand | Faat daeng (Central, Peninsular), tamsao thale (Peninsular). |
| Vietnam | c[oj]c do, c[os]c ken. |
Geographical Distributions
Lumnitzera littorea is distributed from India and Sri Lanka to Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, Hainan, Thailand, L. littorea is also occurs throughout the Malesian region but rare on the coasts of the Java Sea, northern Australia and into Polynesia east to Tonga.
Description
L. littorea is an evergreen, small to fairly large trees that can reach up to measure 37 m tall (L. racemosa usually much smaller), with straight bole and cylindrical under favourable conditions. Otherwise it is rather with poor shaped, often twisted, branchless for up to measure 12 m, up to 60(-100) cm in diametre, without buttresses but produces pneumatophores and sometimes stilt roots. The bark surface is shallowly fissured, lenticellate, fawn-brown to grayish in colour while the inner bark is deep red outwards and orange within. The crown is pale green in colour and irregular in shape.
The leaves are arranged spirally, in tufts towards the end of twigs, simple, obovate in colour, rather fleshy, slightly notched margin, subsessile and exstipulate.
The 5-merous flowers are in a short, axillary or terminal spike or raceme. The receptacle (sepal tube) bears 2 adnate and persistent bracteoles. The petals are free, scarlet or white and caduceus. There are 5-10 stamens and they are borne on the inner wall of the receptacle tube. The disk is absent or obscure. The ovary is inferior, 1-locular with 2-5 ovules, 1 style and persistent.
The fruit is a more or less woody, compressed ellipsoid pseudocarp, 1-seeded and crowned by the persistent sepal.
The seedling is with epigeal germination. The cotyledons are emergent while the hypocotyl is elongated.
Ecology / Cultivation
L. littorea appears to prefer less saline, well-drained sites, often in association with Heritiera littoralis Aiton.
Line Drawing / Photograph
References
- Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 5 (3): Timber trees: Lesser-known timbers.
