Platea latifolia
Content
Description
Large tree, (10-)20-45 m, bole columnar, angular and with shallow to rather deep grooves, up to 60 cm ø, buttresses, if any, short, rarely up to 1.5 m;
Bark grey to brown, rather smooth, with irregular shallow fissures and numerous lenticels, 12-16 cm thick, outer part in cross-section red, inner one yellowish white, with a peculiar aromatic agreeable smell (of cumarine?) and very bitter taste as they are also found in the leaves.
Tip of branchlets, inflorescences, petioles and young blades covered with a rather coarse woolly rusty and detersile tomentum of flattish to obliquely erect star-shaped or fascicled hairs, and with minor scales, which go early.
Leaves elliptic, or ovate-, rarely oblong-elliptic, apex generally shortly subacutely acuminate, base broadly attenuate to rounded, thin-coriaceous, at maturity glabrous and shining above, and dull yellowish-greenish-greyish to almost bluish (as in Lauraceae and Myristicaceae) beneath, still covered there with sparse flattish to obliquely erect star-shaped or fascicled hairs especially along midrib and nerves, and besides over the whole undersurface with a skin-like layer of small, thin, ± confluent, finally greyish-silvery scales (these with a minute or scarcely recognizable darker centre), which lasts for a while, finally almost glabrous even under a lens, (7-)10-20(-25) by (3-)5-11 cm, midrib and 6-10(-12) pairs of rather straight robust nerves ± sunken above, distinctly raised beneath, reticulation of veinlets dense, fine and generally more visibly raised on both faces of fully mature leaves;
Petals light green, at least finally glabrous, c. 1.5 mm.
Ovary obconical, whether or not covered initially with fine stellate appressed hairs, base included by the dorsally pubescent sepals (c. 2 mm).
Distribution
Annam present, Asia-Temperate: Hainan (Hainan present), Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; East Himalaya (Sikkim present); Jawa (Jawa present); Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); New Guinea present; Philippines (Philippines present); Sulawesi (Sulawesi present); Sumatera (Sumatera present); Thailand (Thailand present), Banka present, Biliran present, East Bengal present, Kwangsi present, Melanesia present, Mindanao present, New Britain present, Sylhet present, Tonkin present
Sikkim, East Bengal (Sylhet), Indo-China (Tonkin, Annam), China (Kwangsi, Hainan), and Thailand; in Malesia: Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, Banka, Java, Borneo, Philippines (Biliran, Mindanao), Celebes, and New Guinea; also in Melanesia (New Britain).
Uses
Timber of large size, whitish, a little lustrous, with a smell of cumarine, soft, not durable, locally used for house building in positions under the roof. For descriptions of the wood of P. latifolia cf. ; the description of the wood of P. excelsa (l.c. 253) also refers here, as the cited KOORDERS coll. no. actually belongs to P. latifolia.
Citation
Miq. 1856 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 793
Bl. 1852 – In: Contr. Bot.: 97
BACK. 1911: Schoolfl. Java: 227
BECC. 1877 – In: Malesia: 116
AMSH. 1948 – In: Back., Bekn. Fl. Java, (em. ed.), 6: fam. 135, p. 4
MIERS 1852 – In: Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.: 110
CHUN & CHANG 1965: p. 449. – In: Fl. Hainan.: f. 512
Bl. 1905 – In: Bull. Inst. Bot. Btzg.: 50
DAHL 1952 – In: J. Arn. Arb.: 261
HASSK. 1844: Cat. Hort. Bog.: 214
BACK. & BAKH.f. 1965 – In: Fl. Java: 60
KOORD.-SCHUM. 1912 – In: Syst. Verz.: 1
Merr. 1938 – In: J. Arn. Arb.: 44
Koord. 1912 – In: Exk. Fl. Java: 531
HOCHR. 1904: Pl. Bog. Exs.: 45
K. & V. 1900 – In: Bijdr.: 156
Merr. 1923 – In: En. Philip.: 489
MIERS 1852 – In: Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.: 110
Bl. 1970 – In: Fl. Thail.: 76
R. BR. 1887 – In: Fl. Br. Ind.: 381
Koord. 1913 – In: Atlas: t. 119
BURK. 1935: Dict.: 1768
SLEUM. 1969 – In: Blumea: 243
Ridl. 1922 – In: Fl. Mal. Pen.: 426
Bl. 1852 – In: Contr. Bot.: 97
SLEUM. 1940 – In: Notizbl. Berl.-Dahl.: 360
HEYNE 1950 – In: Nutt. Pl.: 986
GAGNEP. 1948: Fl. Gen. I.-C.: 754
WALP. 1842 – In: Rep.: 378
VALET. 1886: Crit. Overz. Olacin: 251, 253: t. 6, f. 40 & 41
ex HOOK.f. 1887 – In: IC. Pl.: t. 1707
Bl. 1852 – In: Contr. Bot.: 97
WALP. 1851 – In: Ann.: 182
CHUN 1940 – In: Sunyatsenia: 229