Palaquium hexandrum

Palaquium hexandrum is a tree in the family Sapotaceae. The specific epithet hexandrum means 'six stamens', referring to the flowers.

Description

A tree. It grows to 50 m high. The trunk is 120 cm across. There are buttresses 3 m high. It can have stilt roots when in swamp forest. The bark is smooth, deeply cracked and scaly. The twigs are 2-3.5 mm thick. They have white to reddish hairs. The leaves are loosely clustered at the tips of the twigs. They are papery to thinly leathery. They are oval and 3-23 cm long by 1.5-10 cm wide. There are hairs on the midrib underneath. The edges of the leaves are wavy. There are 6-14 pairs of secondary veins. These are raised underneath the leaf. The leaf stalk is 6-32 mm long by 1 mm wide and grooved above. The flowers are greenish yellow. There are 3-20 per cluster. They occur in the axils of leaves or on old leaf scars. The fruit are round or oval and 2-3 cm long. The fruit stalk is 22 mm long. There are 1-2 seeds inside. The fruit are edible.

Edible Uses

The sour fruit are eaten fresh. The seeds and oil are also edible.

Traditional Uses

The fruit are sour and are eaten.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

Distribution

A tropical plant. It grows in lowland forest and seasonally flooded swamp forest. It can grow up to 1300 m altitude.

Where It Grows

Asia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, SE Asia,

Other Uses

The latex is used as gutta percha (rubber). Gutta-percha is a natural latex obtained from the sap of the tree. Allowing this fluid to evaporate and coagulate in the sun produces a hard, durable, non-brittle but non-elastic latex which can be made flexible again when heated to temperatures over 50°c, and then retains any form given while cooling. Prior to the advent of synthetic materials, gutta-percha had a wide range of uses - most particularly as an insulating material for electricity wiring and for underwater telegraph wires, a purpose for which it is very well suited since it is bio-inert and so is not attacked by marine plants or animals. Gutta-percha can be moulded into any shape and has been used to make items such as ornate furniture, pistol grips, acid-resistant receptacles and ‘mourning’ jewellery, where its dark colour was an advantage. It has been widely used as the core of golf balls and is still used in modern dentistry where its bio-inertness makes it ideal as a temporary filling for teeth and as a filling material inside tooth fillings. It is used locally for fixing tools into their handles. The timber is used. We do not have any more specific information on the wood of this species, but it belongs to a group of timbers collectively called 'Nyatoh'. The general description of nyatoh wood is as follows:- The heartwood is a dark pink to a red-brown; it is clearly demarcated from the 4 - 9cm wide band of lighter-coloured sapwood. The texture is medium; the grain straight or interlocked, sometimes wavy. The wood is light in weight, soft to moderately hard; strong, somewhat durable, being resistant to dry wood borers, moderately resistant to fungi but susceptible to termites. It seasons somewhat slowly, with a high risk of checking and distortion; once dry it is stable in service. There is a very variable content of silica according to the species, but in general the wood has a high blunting effect so stellite-tipped and tungsten-carbide tools are recommended; nailing and screwing are good, but require pre-boring; gluing is correct. The wood has a range of applications, including for high class furniture and cabinet making, solid doors, panelling, joinery, parquet flooring, boat decking, light carpentry, turnery, moulding and veneer.

Synonyms

Also Known As

Kayu tanjong hutan, Nato nasi, Nyato, Nyatu, Nyatu tangkai, Pohon nyatoh jongkang, Pokok jongek, Tanjung hutan

References (13)

• Argent, G et al, nd, Manual of the Larger and More important non Dipterocarp Trees of Central Kalimantan Indonesia. Volume 2 Forest Research Institute, Samarinda, Indonesia. p 584
• Burkill, I.H., 1966, A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol 2 (I-Z) p 1666
• Heyne, K., 1927, p 1235
• Menninger, E.A., 1977, Edible Nuts of the World. Horticultural Books. Florida p 33
• Milow, P., et al, 2013, Malaysian species of plants with edible fruits or seeds and their evaluation. International Journal of Fruit Science. 14:1, 1-27

More from Sapotaceae

Planchonella myrsinodendron

Northern Yellow Boxwood, Yellow Teak

Planchonella obovata

Northern Yellow Boxwood, Black Ash, Yellow Teak

Planchonella pohlmaniana

Big Green Plum, Yellow Boxwood, Engraver’s Wood, Great green plum

🌱

Pouteria adolfi-friederici

Sosi

Pouteria adolfi-friederici subsp. australis

Pouteria alnifolia