Clausena lansium (Lour.) Skeels
Family
Rutaceae
Synonyms
Quinaria lansium Lour., Claugena wampi (Blanco) Olivo, Clausena punctata (Sonn.) Rehder & Wilson, non Wight & Arnott.
Vernacular Names
|
Malaysia |
Wampi, wang-pei. |
|
English |
Wampee. |
|
Philippines |
Wampi, huampit (Tagalog). |
|
Singapore |
Wampoi, wang-pei. |
|
Cambodia |
Kantrop. |
|
Laos |
Sômz maf’ai. |
|
Thailand |
Mafai-chin (Nan), sommafai (Chiang Mai). |
|
Vietnam |
Hoàng bì, giôi. |
|
Frech |
Vampi. |
Geographical Distributions
Clausena lansium is native to and commonly cultivated in southern China and Vietnam. The tree has found its way into Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand); outside this region, it is occasionally grown in India, Sri Lanka, Australia (Queensland), United States (Hawaii and Florida) and in Central America.
Description
This is an evergreen tree, up to 12 m tall, with its trunk up to 40 cm in diametre and usually low-branched.
The leaves are spirally-arranged, up to 40 cm long, with 1-2 cm petiole and pinnately compound with 3-15 leaflets. The leaflets are ovate-elliptic and measuring up to 14 cm x 7 cm. The terminal leaflet is the largest while the lowest pair is the smallest, thin-coriaceous, glossy dark green, oblique at the base, with entire to minutely blunt margins and coarsely undulate-subdentate apex, becoming hairless with age and 5-7 mm long petiolules.
The inflorescences are terminal and sub-terminal, up to 50 cm long and cymose-paniculate. The flowers are subsessile, 5-merous, sweet-scented and whitish to yellow-green. The sepals are less than 1 mm long while the petals are narrowly elliptic and measuring 5 mm x 2 mm. There are 10 stamens. The ovary is borne on short gynophore and 5-celled.
The fruit is a slightly spherical berry, up to 2.5 cm diametre, brownish-yellow, sparsely hairy, 5 celled, but often only 1- to 2-seeded. The pericarp is thin and glandular-dotted. Its pulp is watery, semi-translucent and acid to sweet.
The seeds are ellipsoid-ovoid, about 1.5 cm long and green with brownish chalazal cap. The cotyledons are green and glandular.
Ecology / Cultivation
C. lansium needs subtropical to tropical climate. It survives short, slight frost (-2°C), but trees have been killed at -6°C. They thrive in rich loam, but do well on other well-drained soils too. In general, they require conditions similar to those for citrus trees.
Line Drawing / Photograph
References
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Plant Resources of South-East Asia No.2: Edible fruits and nuts .
