1632

2: Edible fruits and nuts

Dracontomelon dao (Blanco) Merr. & Rolfe

ANACARDIACEAE

Dracontomelon edule (Blanco) Skeels, Dracontomelon mangiferum (Blume) Blume, Dracontomelon sylvestre Blume.

Indonesia: dau (Java), singkuang (Kalimantan), dar (Irian Jaya). Malaysia: sengkuang. Papua New Guinea: New Guinea walnut. Philippines: peldao. Thailand: ka-kho, sang-kuan.

From India throughout Indo-China and Malesia to the Solomon Islands. Sometimes planted in villages.

The fruit is edible but inferior and sought mostly by children. The flowers and leaves can be eaten as a vegetable. The bark is used in traditional medicine to provoke abortion. The wood is soft, moderately heavy, not very durable but used for veneers, furniture, boxes, matches. Tree is an ornamental avenue tree.

Deciduous tree, up to 55 m tall and 1.5 m diameter, with buttresses up to 5 m high. Leaves with 4—9 pairs of leaflets. Flowers whitish, in long panicles. Fruit a globose drupe, ca. 4 cm in diameter, dingy brown, 5-celled. In evergreen forests in high rainfall areas, at low altitudes.

[20]Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam (various authors), 1960–. Vol. 1–24. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
[93]van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950–. Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4–10. Centre for Research and Development in Biology, Bogor, Indonesia, and Rijksherbarium, Leiden, the Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen

Jansen, P.C.M., Jukema, J., Oyen, L.P.A. & van Lingen, T.G., 1991. Dracontomelon dao (Blanco) Merr. & Rolfe. In: Verheij, E.W.M. and Coronel, R.E. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 2: Edible fruits and nuts. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea