Author:
Jan Scholten
Book:
Qjurious
Type:
Info
Chapter:
3-644.22.16
Bhesa indica
Clades: Centroplacaceae.
Synonym: Bhesa paniculata; Trochisandra indica; Kurrimia bipartita; Kurrimia indica; Kurrimia paniculata.
Region: India, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Thailand, Malay peninsula, Indonesia, Borneo, Philippines.
Habitat: mature, tropical wet evergreen forests; altitude 900 m to 1800 m.
Botany
Evergreen trees; up to 30 m tall.
Stem: bark smooth, grey-brown; branchlets stout and cylindrical and carry scars of fallen leaves and stipules.
Leaves: elliptic-oblong to narrow-ovate; apex obtusely acute or short acuminate, base is rounded; simple, alternate, clustered at twig ends; leathery, shining, darker green above, paler below, hairless; 10–18 cm long and 4.5-8.5 cm wide; large, caducous stipules up to 2.5 cm long; petiole long; 2.5 cm to 4.5 cm, swollen at the base and tip.
Inflorescence: at the ends of branches formed as panicled racemes.
Flowers: small, white.
Fruit: capsule, red, prominently 2-lobed; with a single seed per lobe.
Seeds: recalcitrant, losing viability rapidly on drying.
Dispersion: by fruit bats, possibly mammals, macaques.