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5(2):Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Wrightia pubescens R.Br.

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Wrightia in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Mem. Wern. Soc. 1: 73 (1811).

Indonesia: mentaos (Javanese), bintaos, benteli lalaki (Sundanese). Malaysia: jeliti, mentoh, metih-metah (Peninsular). Philippines: lanete (general), anantong (Zambales), manlagosi (Mindoro). Laos: mouk. Thailand: mok (central), mukkuea (Chanthaburi), mok-man (Chon Buri, Nakhon Ratchasima). Vietnam: th[uwf]ng m[uws]c l[oo]ng.

Southern China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, throughout the Malesian area but probably not in Borneo, towards the Solomon Islands and northern Australia.

Wrightia pubescens is the main source of lanete; the wood is used for e.g. general construction, pencils, musical instruments, wayang figures and carving. The latex has been used against severe dysentery. In the Philippines, the trees are sometimes used for reforestation. The bark is commonly used in Indonesia as a coagulant for the manufacture of 'litsusu', a traditional cheese-like product.

A medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 35 m tall, bole columnar, up to 50 cm in diameter, bark surface deeply fissured, branchlets glabrous to densely puberulent when young; leaves narrowly ovate or ovate to oblong-ovate or elliptical, 5-15 cm x 2-7 cm, glabrous to densely puberulent above, with 8-15 pairs of secondary veins, petiole 0.4-0.8 cm long; flowers white to yellow or pink or even dark red, corolla subrotate, the tube 5-7 mm long, the lobes 10-20 mm long, stamens inserted at the mouth of the tube; follicles coherent, fusiform, 15-30 cm long, finely striate and obscurely to conspicuously lenticellate. Wrightia pubescens is highly variable and has been subdivided into 5 subspecies, 3 of which are found in the Malesian area. Subsp. pubescens (synonyms: Wrightia calycina A.DC., Wrightia spanogheana Miq.), with calyx about as long as corolla tube, occurs from Java and Sulawesi eastward to northern Australia. Subsp. candollei (S. Vidal) Ngan (synonym: Wrightia candollei S. Vidal), with calyx about 2/3 as long as corolla tube, is endemic to the Philippines. Subsp. laniti (Blanco) Ngan (synonyms: Wrightia javanica A.DC., Wrightia laniti (Blanco) Merr., Wrightia tomentosa (Roxb.) Roem. & Schultes var. cochinchinensis Pierre ex Pitard), with calyx about 1/4 as long as corolla tube, occurs from mainland South-East Asia to Sumatra, Java and the Philippines. Wrightia pubescens is quite common in evergreen and deciduous forest, thickets, and savanna, on periodically or permanently dry locations, up to 1000 m altitude. The density of the wood is 470-615 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content.

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Nguyen Ba & Nguyen Nghia Thin

Ba, N. & Thin, N.N., 1995. Wrightia pubescens R.Br.. In: Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Soerianegara, I. and Wong, W.C. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(2):Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea