Lansium domesticum
Content
Description
Tree to 30 m and 75 cm diam. but usually much less.
Bark light reddish brown or fawn mottled, slightly scaling and with tubercles of old infructescences.
Leaves 30–50 cm; petiole 5–8 cm, often flattened adaxially, pulvinate.
Petals 2–3 mm long, ovate to suborbicular, creamy white.
Staminal tube glabrous or almost so, margin un- dulate to crenate; anthers 1–2 mm, within or slightly protruding from tube.
Ovary and style densely pilose.
Fruit 2–4 cm long, 1.5–2(–4) cm diam., pale yellow or brownish, often becoming glabrous; pericarp sometimes with white latex, white within.
Seeds 1–5, the locules with undeveloped seeds filled with arillate tissue; aril completely enveloping seed, c. 25 mm long, 15 mm wide, perichalazal and pachychalazal, developing from funicle and exostome (Corner, Seeds Dicots), testa c. 13 mm long, 7 mm wide, ± flat- tened ellipsoid.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; Jawa (Jawa present); Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Maluku (Maluku present); Philippines (Philippines present); Sulawesi (Sulawesi present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), Peninsular Thailand present, West New Guinea present, cultivated present present present
Peninsular Thailand; Malesia (wild, cultivated and naturalized): Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Java, Philippines (?native), Celebes (?native), Moluccas (?native), West New Guinea (?native). Cultivated in Indochina, India, Florida etc.Indochina (cultivated), India (cultivated), Florida (cultivated)
Uses
Lansium domesticum is one of the important native fruit trees of Malesia but it is scarcely grown on a plantation scale, most of the fruits seen in markets being collected from village trees. Forms have been in cultivation for a long time, those in Java in 1413 being remarked on by the Chinese traveller Ma Huan . In Java, there are three major recognized sorts: duku with small ellipsoid, glabrous, pale yellow fruits without latex from trees with glabrous leaves and small flowers; bidjitan or langsat with larger ellipsoid, glabrescent pale yellow fruits with a little latex from trees with larger flowers and leaves which are ± pilose abaxially; kokossan with smaller globose, orange yellow fruits with latex and a tough pericarp from trees with the largest flowers and most pubescent leaves .
In the Malay Peninsula, the kokossan is rarely grown and, as far as I know, does not appear in major markets: the individual seeds are not removed, the juice of the aril merely being sucked out from the bitten fruit, the flavour being like that of Baccaurea motley- ana Muell. Arg. (Euphorbiaceae) (Kostermans, 1966: 236). The fruits in Malay markets are called duku and langsat and more recently has appeared duku-langsat. The name duku is used for a larger round form, which is borne in infructescences of about 8–12. The pericarp is always c. 5 mm thick without latex. Usually there are no developed seeds and the aril is sweetly flavoured. By contrast the langsat of the Malay Peninsula has smaller ellipsoid bitter-sweet fruits with thin pericarp and much latex, borne in in- florescences of about 20 or more (Fig. 44). The duku-langsat has features of both. The Malayan duku is a tree with a densely leafy wide crown, reminiscent of the Baccaurea (rambai); the langsat is more scruffy in appearance with a more open crown , though Molesworth Allen (l.c. 104) reported duku trees with this habit in Perak.
Prakash et al. have shown that the Malayan duku and langsat are apomictic, the different forms thus being clones. In the Philippines, forms known as lanzones which resemble the duku and langsat clones of the Malay Peninsula, have been shown to be apomictic and parthenocarpic (Bernardo et al., op. cit. 1961). Wild trees in the Malay Peninsula have sourer, smaller fruits with latex: they are not readily grown outside the forest (Ng, pers. comm.). Selected trees are also na- turalized, persisting long after the forest has grown back around abandoned cultivation.
Large-leaved forms have been collected in northern Sumatra and southern Thailand, but whether these are truly wild or relics of cultivation is unknown. Moreover, nothing is known of the embryology of any truly wild tree.
Kostermans has attempted a classification of the wild and cultivated trees, in which the well known Java clones have been accorded specific rank: kokossan = Aglaia aquea; bidjitan = A. domestica; duku (sensu Java) = A. dookoo (described from the Malay Peninsula!). Closely related wild trees have been either included with them or assigned to separate species (A. steenisii, A. sepalina, ?A. intricatoreticulata). It seems more appropriate to combine the range of apomictic clones and their allies into an aggregate species (Mabberley, ll.cc.). Hasskarl (l.c.) proposed the vernacular names as used in Java as subdivisions in L. domesticum and these could be taken as cultivar names. However, the confusion about what in Malaya is the most important group of cultivated trees, the duku, would make the application of such names inappropriate. Without considerable fieldwork and embryological study, the fixing of names into a cultivar nomenclature seems premature and is not formally adopted here. Nevertheless, the tree known as kokossan, with its distinctive foliage and large flowers, the L. domesticum var. aqueum, var. pubescens or L. aqueum of botanists, may be the most clearcut candidate for such treatment and would be written Lansium domesticum cv. Kokossan or Lansium domesticum ‘Kokossan’. It is recorded from Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sumatra and Java.
Although refreshing, the arils of Lansium domesticum have one of the lowest vita- min C contents of any fruit grown in Malesia , c. 3.9 ± 0.9 mg per 100 g fruit, the highest being guava at 102.6 ± 15.9 mg per 100 g. The arils represent some 60% of the fruit and may be preserved in syrup or candied as well as eaten fresh. They com- prise 86.5% water and the fruits do not keep well, though at lower temperatures they may last in good condition for about two weeks. The pericarp turns brownish and acidity increases but later falls again.
Trees are propagated by budding, cleft and side grafting and from seed, in which case they flower after about 15 years. The young inflorescences are visible many months before anthesis and begin to develop when flowers of other inflorescences are already mature. In the Malay Peninsula Yap (l.c.) records that flowering takes less than a month in wild populations. The cultivated duku and langsat fruit twice a year there, but droughts cause a missed season (Molesworth Allen, l.c.: 104). Indeed, the trees cannot be grown in regions with great seasonality. Particular clones are associated with certain regions in the peninsula, e.g. duku and the Kesang District of Johore and the duku-langsat which comes mainly from Kota Baru in Kelantan and Belada near Kuala Trengganu , while the langsat is more frequently cultivated in the north of the peninsula (Molesworth Allen, l.c.). Some especially good forms may be worth as much as a durian to their owners. Interesting details of trading the fruits and of folklore associated with them is provided by Kostermans (1966). See also .
The wood is light-coloured and has been used for toolhandles, houseposts and raf- ters. Formerly, it was one of the woods used for ‘baja', a teeth-blacking agent used by the Malays . The bark is astringent and is of possible medical value, particularly in treating dysentery. An extract has been used as an arrow poison, for which the seeds, which are said to be anthelmintic, have also been used. The pericarp has been burnt as an insect repellent in Java and used dried in the treatment of diarrhoea and intestinal spasms, as well as malaria and other fevers . The active principle appears to be a resin .
In the Malay Peninsula, the kokossan is rarely grown and, as far as I know, does not appear in major markets: the individual seeds are not removed, the juice of the aril merely being sucked out from the bitten fruit, the flavour being like that of Baccaurea motley- ana Muell. Arg. (Euphorbiaceae) (Kostermans, 1966: 236). The fruits in Malay markets are called duku and langsat and more recently has appeared duku-langsat. The name duku is used for a larger round form, which is borne in infructescences of about 8–12. The pericarp is always c. 5 mm thick without latex. Usually there are no developed seeds and the aril is sweetly flavoured. By contrast the langsat of the Malay Peninsula has smaller ellipsoid bitter-sweet fruits with thin pericarp and much latex, borne in in- florescences of about 20 or more (Fig. 44). The duku-langsat has features of both. The Malayan duku is a tree with a densely leafy wide crown, reminiscent of the Baccaurea (rambai); the langsat is more scruffy in appearance with a more open crown , though Molesworth Allen (l.c. 104) reported duku trees with this habit in Perak.
Prakash et al. have shown that the Malayan duku and langsat are apomictic, the different forms thus being clones. In the Philippines, forms known as lanzones which resemble the duku and langsat clones of the Malay Peninsula, have been shown to be apomictic and parthenocarpic (Bernardo et al., op. cit. 1961). Wild trees in the Malay Peninsula have sourer, smaller fruits with latex: they are not readily grown outside the forest (Ng, pers. comm.). Selected trees are also na- turalized, persisting long after the forest has grown back around abandoned cultivation.
Large-leaved forms have been collected in northern Sumatra and southern Thailand, but whether these are truly wild or relics of cultivation is unknown. Moreover, nothing is known of the embryology of any truly wild tree.
Kostermans has attempted a classification of the wild and cultivated trees, in which the well known Java clones have been accorded specific rank: kokossan = Aglaia aquea; bidjitan = A. domestica; duku (sensu Java) = A. dookoo (described from the Malay Peninsula!). Closely related wild trees have been either included with them or assigned to separate species (A. steenisii, A. sepalina, ?A. intricatoreticulata). It seems more appropriate to combine the range of apomictic clones and their allies into an aggregate species (Mabberley, ll.cc.). Hasskarl (l.c.) proposed the vernacular names as used in Java as subdivisions in L. domesticum and these could be taken as cultivar names. However, the confusion about what in Malaya is the most important group of cultivated trees, the duku, would make the application of such names inappropriate. Without considerable fieldwork and embryological study, the fixing of names into a cultivar nomenclature seems premature and is not formally adopted here. Nevertheless, the tree known as kokossan, with its distinctive foliage and large flowers, the L. domesticum var. aqueum, var. pubescens or L. aqueum of botanists, may be the most clearcut candidate for such treatment and would be written Lansium domesticum cv. Kokossan or Lansium domesticum ‘Kokossan’. It is recorded from Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sumatra and Java.
Although refreshing, the arils of Lansium domesticum have one of the lowest vita- min C contents of any fruit grown in Malesia , c. 3.9 ± 0.9 mg per 100 g fruit, the highest being guava at 102.6 ± 15.9 mg per 100 g. The arils represent some 60% of the fruit and may be preserved in syrup or candied as well as eaten fresh. They com- prise 86.5% water and the fruits do not keep well, though at lower temperatures they may last in good condition for about two weeks. The pericarp turns brownish and acidity increases but later falls again.
Trees are propagated by budding, cleft and side grafting and from seed, in which case they flower after about 15 years. The young inflorescences are visible many months before anthesis and begin to develop when flowers of other inflorescences are already mature. In the Malay Peninsula Yap (l.c.) records that flowering takes less than a month in wild populations. The cultivated duku and langsat fruit twice a year there, but droughts cause a missed season (Molesworth Allen, l.c.: 104). Indeed, the trees cannot be grown in regions with great seasonality. Particular clones are associated with certain regions in the peninsula, e.g. duku and the Kesang District of Johore and the duku-langsat which comes mainly from Kota Baru in Kelantan and Belada near Kuala Trengganu , while the langsat is more frequently cultivated in the north of the peninsula (Molesworth Allen, l.c.). Some especially good forms may be worth as much as a durian to their owners. Interesting details of trading the fruits and of folklore associated with them is provided by Kostermans (1966). See also .
The wood is light-coloured and has been used for toolhandles, houseposts and raf- ters. Formerly, it was one of the woods used for ‘baja', a teeth-blacking agent used by the Malays . The bark is astringent and is of possible medical value, particularly in treating dysentery. An extract has been used as an arrow poison, for which the seeds, which are said to be anthelmintic, have also been used. The pericarp has been burnt as an insect repellent in Java and used dried in the treatment of diarrhoea and intestinal spasms, as well as malaria and other fevers . The active principle appears to be a resin .
Notes
Aglaia intricatoreticulata, known only from inadequate fruiting material from the Malay Peninsula, is included with some hesitation. The leaflets are opposite.
Citation
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