4405

5(2): Timber trees; Minor commercial timbers

Mangifera foetida Lour.

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Mangifera (timber aspects) in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Fl. cochinch.: 160 (1790).

Mangifera horsfieldii Miq. (1859).

Indonesia: membacang, bacang (general), limus (Sundanese, Java), asem hambawang (Kalimantan). Malaysia: machang (general), bacang, pauh (Sabah). Burma (Myanmar): la-môt. Cambodia: svaay sââ. Thailand: machang (Malay, peninsular), mamut, malamut (Thai, peninsular). Vietnam: xo[af]i h[oo]i.

Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Moluccas, possibly also Sulawesi; cultivated and sometimes naturalized also in Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, Thailand and the Lesser Sunda Islands.

The timber is locally used as machang for light indoor construction, temporary constructions and plywood. Streaked heartwood is suitable for the manufacture of furniture. The ripe fruit is edible; it is sweet and tasty, but it has a strong turpentine smell and should be peeled thickly because of the irritant juice present in the skin. The fruit is also used in fruit cocktails. Unripe fruits, washed in salted water or kept for some time in lime water, are sometimes used in vegetable salads and for sour pickles. The irritating sap is used as a lotion for ulcers and to deepen tattoo scars. In flower the tree is a beautiful ornamental.

A medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 40 m tall, with straight bole up to 100 cm in diameter, buttresses absent, bark surface shallowly fissured, whitish-grey to reddish-brown; leaves oblong to elliptical-oblong or elliptical, 12—30 cm 10—15 cm; inflorescence pseudo-terminal, pyramidal, usually glabrous; flowers 5-merous, petals 6—10 mm long, pinkish, at base violet-red, at apex whitish, with a broad short ridge on the inner surface at the base splitting into 3(—5) branches, disk stipe-like and short, one stamen fertile (rarely two), connate at base with the 2—4 unequal staminodes; fruit subglobose, slightly oblique, up to 14 cm in diameter, glossy and yellowish-green, green or brownish when ripe. Mangifera foetida occurs in wet, evergreen lowland forest up to 1000(—1500) m altitude. The density of the wood is 545—785 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

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[388]Lopez, D.T., 1982. Malaysian timbers – machang. Malaysian Forest Service Trade Leaflet No 68. Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Kuala Lumpur. 8 pp.
[397]Mandang, Y.I., Martawidjaya, A. & Kartasujana, I., 1987. Pemanfaatan jenis kayu kurang dikenal [The utilization of lesser-known tree species]. In: Prosiding diskusi pemanfaatan kayu kurang dikenal, 13–14 Januari 1987, Cisarua, Bogor. Badan
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R.H.M.J. Lemmens

Lemmens, R.H.M.J., 1995. Mangifera foetida Lour.. 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