4207

5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Dracontomelon dao (Blanco) Merr. & Rolfe

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

Philipp. Journ. Sci., Bot. 3: 108 (1908).

Dracontomelon mangiferum Blume (1850), Dracontomelon sylvestre Blume (1850), Dracontomelon puberulum Miq. (1861), Dracontomelon edule (Blanco) Skeels (1912).

Indonesia: dahu (general), sengkuang (Kalimantan), basuong (Irian Jaya). Malaysia: sengkuang (Peninsular, Sabah), unkawang (Sarawak), sarunsab (Dusun, Sabah). Papua New Guinea: New Guinea walnut (general), mon (Pidgin). Philippines: dao (general), maliyan (Tagalog). Thailand: ka-kho, sang-kuan (peninsular), phrachao ha phra ong (Chiang Mai).

India, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Cambodia, southern China, thoughout the Malesian area towards the Solomon Islands.

Dracontomelon dao is the main source of dao timber (see general part). The tree is planted as an ornamental in roadside plantings. The fruit is edible but considered inferior and eaten mostly by children; the kernel of the seed is also edible. Locally, flowers and leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable (Papua New Guinea), and they may also be used as food flavouring (the Moluccas), or medicinally (e.g. in Papua New Guinea). The bark is occasionally used in traditional medicine against dysentery (e.g. in Malaysia).

A large tree up to 45(—55) m tall, bole branchless for up to 20(—25) m, up to 100(—150) cm in diameter, with narrow buttresses up to 6 m high, bark surface irregularly scaly, greyish-brown with brown or greenish patches, inner bark pink to red; leaf rachis 6—25(—44) cm long, leaflets (7—)9—19, alternate to opposite, 4.5—20(—27) cm 2—7(—10.5) cm, glabrous or sometimes pubescent below, with hairy domatia; flowers 7—10 mm long, in panicles of up to 50 cm long, disk puberulous; fruit globose, 5-celled. Dracontomelon dao occurs in primary or secondary evergreen to semi-deciduous forest in areas with high rainfall or less frequently in areas with a short dry season where it is deciduous or partly so. It is found scattered on clayey to stony soils, at 0—500(—1000) m altitude. The density of the wood is (330—)370—790 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

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B. Louman

Louman, B., 1995. Dracontomelon dao (Blanco) Merr. & Rolfe. 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