Planchonia spectabilis
Content
Description
Trees, up to 30 m or more, up to 1 m diam.;
Bark brown, scaly.
Branchlets slender, smooth to striate, lenticellate, greyish brown, darker at apex, leaf-scars distinct, leaf-traces often visible.
Leaves:
Inflorescences:
Flowers c. 7 cm long, glabrous, slightly fragrant;
Petals oblong, 38-48 by 10-15 mm, thinly papyraceous, base tapering, apex acute.
Stamens white at the apex shading to deep red at the base;
Fruits ovoid, without basal neck, not compressed or angular, c. 4.5 by 3 cm, green.
Seeds 4-6, irregularly compressed, 1-5 cm long.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Philippines (Philippines present), Bisaya Islands present, Luzon present present, Mindanao present
Malesia: Philippines (Luzon and Mindanao). Very common in Luzon and Bisaya Islands.
Uses
The wood is used for posts, beams, joints, rafters, flooring, interior finish and cabinet work. The wood rarely comes to the Manila market except in medium-grade miscellaneous lots, but sometimes is ignorantly or fraudulently substituted for betis (a Sapotaceae species) or other heavy, dark-red woods ().
Notes
This species differs from P. valida by its thinner leaves and solitary or few-flowered, short racemes and from P. papuana by its smaller calyx and shorter staminal tube.
Citation
Quisumb. 1951 – In: Bull. Dept. Agric. Philipp.: 1043
Schneider 1916 – In: Bull. Bur. Forest. Philipp. Islands: 179
Merr. 1906 – In: Philipp. J. Sci.: 102
Anon. 1938 – In: Philipp. J. Forest.: 330
R.Knuth 1939 – In: Engl., Pflanzenr. 219: 55
Merr. 1923 – In: Enum. Philipp. Fl. Pl.: 143
Erdtman 1952: Pollen Morph. Pl. Taxon.: 223
Whitford 1911 – In: Bull. Bur. Forest. Philipp. Islands: 81
Kuswata 1965: p. 174. – In: Bull. Bot. Surv. India: f. 5, 12