Ganophyllum falcatum
Content
Description
Tree up to 42 m high, dbh up to 150 cm, with buttresses;
Leaves (4-)5-8(-10)-jugate;
Inflorescences up to 20 cm long, widely and especially the female ones sparsely branched;
Sepals 1.25-1.5 mm long, green, hairy inside.
Stamens:
Fruits ovoid, acute at apex, to subglobular, 10-20 by 7-10 mm, red;
Distribution
Andaman present, Asia-Tropical: Borneo present (Sabah present); Malaya present; Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present ‒ present; Philippines (Philippines present); Sulawesi (Sulawesi present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), Australasia: Northern Territory (Northern Territory present); Queensland (Queensland present), Eastern Java present, Flores present, Johore present, Nicobar Islands present, Solomon Islands present, Western present, east present, mainly Central present
Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Australia (Western, the Northern Territory, and Queensland) and the Solomon Islands; in Malesia: Malaya (Johore), Sumatra, Java (mainly Central and East), Flores and Komodo, Borneo (Sabah), Philippines, Celebes, Moluccas, and New Guinea. Apparently now common only in New Guinea, but at the end of the last century still fairly common in at least eastern Java.
Uses
For a description of the timber, see p. 427.
Good timber wood; also used for matches and match boxes. Bark used in soap and as a fish poison. See: .
Notes
1. There is somewhat more variation in New Guinea than in the rest of the area: the number of leaflets is variable but lower than to the West, the flowers are more often 4-merous whereas they are mostly 5-merous and not rarely 6-merous to the West, and the fruits are sometimes subglobular and then 2-loculed, each locule having one seed.
2. The African species, G. giganteum Hauman, differs slightly, but constantly, mainly in flowering characters: leaflets nearly sessile, sepals c. 2 mm long, always nearly free, disc glabrous, filament c. 5 mm long, fruits 2-2.2 by 1.5-2 cm, ovoid to ellipsoid with a thick (when dried 2-3 mm) fleshy mesocarp.
3. The present species strongly resembles Koordersiodendron pinnatum Merr. (Anacardia- ceae); the latter mainly differing in the following characters: twigs smooth, leaf rachis neither grooved above nor narrowly triangular in cross section, axillary buds very conspicuous, leaflets always opposite, petiolules long and slender, no glandular scales, inflorescences densely hairy, fruits soft and accordingly flattened in the herbarium.
2. The African species, G. giganteum Hauman, differs slightly, but constantly, mainly in flowering characters: leaflets nearly sessile, sepals c. 2 mm long, always nearly free, disc glabrous, filament c. 5 mm long, fruits 2-2.2 by 1.5-2 cm, ovoid to ellipsoid with a thick (when dried 2-3 mm) fleshy mesocarp.
3. The present species strongly resembles Koordersiodendron pinnatum Merr. (Anacardia- ceae); the latter mainly differing in the following characters: twigs smooth, leaf rachis neither grooved above nor narrowly triangular in cross section, axillary buds very conspicuous, leaflets always opposite, petiolules long and slender, no glandular scales, inflorescences densely hairy, fruits soft and accordingly flattened in the herbarium.
Citation
Whitmore 1966: Guide For. B.S.I.P. p 96
Blume 1913 – In: Atlas. pl. 87
Radlk. 1933 – In: Engl., Pflanzenr. 98. p 1424
P. Royen 1964: p. 21. – In: Man. For. Trees Papua & New Guinea. f. lj, 10
Lane-Poole 1925: For. Res. Terr. Papua and New Guinea. p 109
Merr. 1918: Sp. Blancoan. p 210
Yap 1989 – In: Tree Fl. Malaya. p 440
Oliver 1880: p. 5. – In: Hooker's Icon. Pl. pl. 1308
Backer & Bakh. f. 1965 – In: Fl. Java. p 142
Boerl. & Koord. 1897: p. 57. – In: Icon. Bogor. pl. 17
Koord. & Valeton 1903 – In: Bijdr. Booms. Java. p 231
Blume 1923 – In: Enum. Philipp. Flow. Pl. p 515
Burger 1972: Seedlings: 322. f. 128
Engl 1883: p. 168. – In: DC, Monogr. Phan. 4. f. 45-50
S.T. Reynolds 1984: p. 32. – In: Austrobaileya. f. lh-j
Radlk. 1933 – In: Engl., Pflanzenr. 98. p 1223
Radlk. 1922 – In: Fedde, Rep. 18. p 343
F.S. Walker 1948: For. Br. Solomon Is. p 167
Blume 1985: p. 18. – In: Fl. Austral. f. 3e, f, map 18
Foreman 1971: Check List Bougainville: 124, 125. fig.