Dysoxylum angustifolium
Content
Description
Riparian rheophytic tree to 9 m, branching low down, bushy and straggly; bole to 10 cm diam.
Bark grey.
Leaves 15–30 cm, paripinnate, 4- or 5(–7)- jugate, with terminal spike c. 2 mm long, or its scar, glabrous.
Flowers onion-scented.
Petals 4, 16–20 by 2.5–4 mm, linear- oblong, ± puberulous on both surfaces, white, valvate, weakly connate proximally, apices boat-shaped.
Staminal tube glabrous, margin obscurely 8-lobed; anthers 8, c. 1 mm long, glabrous.
Ovary densely adpressed pubescent, 4-locular, each locule with 2 ovules; style 4-angled, puberulous; stylehead c. 1 mm diam., discoid, dimpled.
Capsules ± aggregated in distal part of infructescence, c. 7 cm diam., depressed-obovoid, whitish becoming pale purplish pink, downward-pointing, 4 valved.
Seeds (1) 2–6 (1 long or 2 short per locule), to 4 by 2 cm, plano-convex, exarillate, dangling from fruit on white strands 1–2 cm; sarcotesta bright orange- red.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical, river systems on the east of the Malay Peninsula present
Malesia: restricted to the river systems on the east of the Malay Peninsula
Uses
The seeds have been used as fish bait though they are said to make the fish flesh unpalatable (Corner, l.c.). It is believed that the fish disperse the seeds, much as Gonystylus bancanus (Thymelaeaceae) is distributed by a small catfish in the peat-swamp forest of Sarawak, where the fish flesh also has a strange flavour after ingestion of the seeds . The related Guarea guidonia (L.) Sleumer of tropical America is thought to be fish-dispersed and possibly Aglaia yzermannii also. The latter grows with Dysoxylum angustifolium and greatly resembles it in general form (see Steenis, l.c.) but it differs most obviously in its lesser stature, smaller, imparipinnate leaves with fewer leaflets, tiny flowers and small indehiscent orange-pink fruits each with 2 seeds.