4181

5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Diospyros maritima Blume

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

Bijdr. fl. Ned. Ind. part 13: 669 (1826).

Diospyros laxa (R.Br.) Bailey (1883), Diospyros liukiuensis Makino (1908), Diospyros camarinensis Merr. (1915).

Indonesia: kunyit (Java), belu itam perempuan (Seram), kayu itam lewo (Sulawesi). Philippines: malatinta, kanomai (general), tanag (Palawan).

The Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Philippines, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and northern Australia.

The pale wood is used locally, e.g. for musical instruments, furniture, inlaying and novelties; it is also reported to produce good-quality charcoal. The fruits are used to poison fish.

A small to medium-sized tree up to 25 m tall, bole cylindrical, short, up to 50(—100) cm in diameter, without buttresses, bark surface lenticellate, black, inner bark pale yellow; leaves ovate-elliptical to oblong-lanceolate, 5—35 cm 3—12.5 cm, base obtuse to slightly attenuate, apex obtuse, glabrous, tertiary venation reticulate, inconspicuous; male flowers in 3—8-flowered cymes, 4(—5)-merous, stamens 15—18(—20); female flowers in 1—3-flowered cymes, 4-merous, calyx lobes valvate, sericeous outside and inside, corolla divided to about halfway, staminodes 4—10, ovary with a single style with 3—4 stigmatic lobes and 8 uni-ovulate locules; fruit depressed globose, 1.5—4 cm in diameter. Diospyros maritima occurs in thickets and forest along the coast and inland, up to 150(—700) m altitude. The density of the wood is 620—795 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

[42]Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., 1936–1955. Revisio Ebenacearum Malayensium. Contributions a l'Ttude de la flore des Indes NTerlandaises XXXIII. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg, STrie III, 15(1–5): 1–515, 92 plates.
[77]Burgess, P.F., 1966. Timbers of Sabah. Sabah Forest Records No 6. Forest Department, Sabah, Sandakan. xviii + 501 pp.
[125]de Guzman, E., Umali, R.M. & Sotalbo, E.D., 1986. Guide to the Philippine flora and fauna. Vol. 3: Dipterocarps, non-dipterocarps. Natural Resources Management Centre, Ministry of Natural Resources & University of the Philippines, Quezon City and Los Baños. xx + 414 pp.
[374]Li, H.-L., 1978. 115. Ebenaceae. In: Li, H.-L. et al. (Editors): Flora of Taiwan. Vol. 4. Epoch Publishing Co., Ltd, Taipei. pp. 99–105.
[527]Reyes, L.J., 1938. Philippine woods. Technical Bulletin No 7. Commonwealth of the Philippines, Department of Agriculture and Commerce. Bureau of Printing, Manila. 536 pp. + 88 plates.

M.S.M. Sosef

Sosef, M.S.M., 1995. Diospyros maritima Blume. 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