Volume 9 > Part 3 > Year 2008 > Page 221 > Fagaceae > Castanopsis

22. Castanopsis nephelioides King ex Hook.f.wfo-0000814581

Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 624. 1888; Gamble, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 75.2: 464. 1915; A.Camus, Chataigniers: 467, t. 69. 1930; Barnett, Quer. Rel. Fag. Asia: 192. 1940; Trans. & Proc. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh 34: 336. 1944; Soepadmo, Fl. Males., ser. I, 7: 298. 1972. Fig. 25; Plate XX: 2.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Tree, 10–15 m high, 60–90 cm girth. Twigs sparsely pubescent, then glabrous, rounded lenticellate. Bark greyish-brown, roughly grooved; inner bark with yellow and purple stripes. Leaves elliptic or oblong, 10–17 by 3–6.5 cm; base obtuse, suboblique; apex acuminate or cuspidate to caudate; margins entire or serrate in the upper half; subcoriaceous or coriaceous, glabrous and glossy green on the upper surface, sparsely pubescent then glabrescent on the lower; midrib prominent on the lower surface, usually purple when dry; lateral nerves 9–13 pairs, ridged on the lower surface, subdepressed on the upper, scalariform veins hardly distinct. Petiole 0.5–1.5 cm, pubescent then glabrescent, blackish when dry. Inflorescences male and female separate or mixed, erect, terminal or axillary. Male inflorescence always branched, spikelets 5–10 cm long. Male flowers solitary, yellowish or white; bracts and bracteoles ca 1.5 by 1 mm, pubescent outside; calyx 6-lobed, lobes nearly free, ca 1.5 by 1 mm, pubescent outside, ciliate; stamens 12, ca 4 mm long, glabrous; rudimentary ovary globose, flattened on top, 0.5 mm in diam., hairy. Female inflorescence spike or 2–3 branched, spikelets 8–15 cm long, pubescent, solitary, other characters as in male flowers; styles 3, divergent; stigmata pointed. Fruits obovoid, always asymmetric, usually flattened adaxially, 2.5–3 by 2–2.5 cm (including cupule), fruit stalk 2–3 mm long, on erect woody infructescence 8–20 cm long. Cupule completely enclosing and fused with the nut; wall sparsely with short woody spines, 2–3 branched reclining and decurved; indehiscent. Nuts 1 per cupule, ovoid, usually depressed to one longitudinal side, 2–2.2 by 1.5–1.7 cm.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Lampang; SOUTH-EASTERN: Trat; PENINSULAR: Ranong, Surat Thani, Phangnga, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Trang, Narathiwat.

Distribution : Malaysia (type), Singapore.

Ecology : Tropical evergreen rain forests, lower montane pine-oak forests, 50–1,600 m (most commonly 200–800 m). Flowering: January–May (most commonly February, March); fruiting: February–December (most commonly July–September).

Vernacular : Ko mu (ก่อหมู)(Northern, Peninsular); ko khao (ก่อขาว), ma ko khao (มะก่อข้าว)(Peninsular).

Uses: Nuts edible.