| Utania racemosa | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Gentianales |
| Family: | Gentianaceae |
| Genus: | Utania |
| Species: | U. racemosa |
| Binomial name | |
| Utania racemosa | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
Utania racemosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Gentianaceae. It occurs in Southeast Asia from Sumatera in Indonesia to the Andaman Islands in India. [1] Its wood is used for timber and fuel.
The tree is a shrub or small that grows usually 3-6m tall, but sometimes as tall as 15 m tall. The trunk measures up to 18 cm in diameter, with smooth to slightly flaky or fissured bark. [2] [3] [4] The leaves are elliptic and ovate or lanceolate, they grow as small as 6 cm–30 cm long and 4–20 cm wide. Its surface is dark green, glossy and leathery. [2]
The tree flowers from ends of crowded branched spikes 6–14 cm long growing under the leaves. Each flower has cream-white petals 2 cm wide. In northeastern Thailand's Bung Khong Long Non-Hunting Area (Bueng Khong Long District), flowers occur from April to June. [5]
The fruit is oval and has a beaked apex 7–15 mm long and 8–11 mm in diameter, it almost similar to a coffee berry. It has a smooth skin. [2] When mature, its size is
Features that distinguish this species from other Utania are: rachis in distal half of flower-bearing part of inflorescence and infructescence noticeably thicker than proximal rachis and peduncle; above basal 1–2 tiers, flowering and fruiting tiers usually close-spaced, without clearly visible rachis lengths between tiers; lobes of calyx clasp tightly corolla or fruit base in dried specimens.[ citation needed ]
The tree is found from Sumatera in Indonesia to Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and the Andaman Islands. [1]
The plant grows in seasonal forest and tropical evergreen lowland rainforest, including secondary forest. [3] In Cambodia described as growing in dense forests on sandy or on clay soils at elevations of between 0-2000m. [4] In the unusual evergreen freshwater swamp forests known as choam in Khmer, occurring in Stung Treng Province, northeast Cambodia, Utania racemosa occurs as a rare understorey tree in permanently and seasonally inundated areas. [6]
In Khmer, the plant is known by a variety of names: prôhu:t tük; tatraw tük; and häng tük, [4] and changka trong. [6]
In Malay, it is known as sepuleh meaning "restorer". It is also called kopi hutan meaning "forest coffee" because of the shape of its fruits. [2]
The wood of the Utania racemosa is used for construction and as firewood in Cambodia. [4] In Thailand the wood is also used for construction, but the trunk is also used to make chopping-blocks and the flowers are used to worship images of Buddha and offer to monks. [5]
Malay people make a special drink from its leaves to treat fevers and rheumatism. [2]
M. Suguraman, botanist in Malaysia, transferred this species to Utania in the journal Plant Ecology and Evolution (147(2): 220) in 2014. [7] [3] Suguraman and K.M. Wong (botanist from Singapore) have worked extensively on Gentianaceae.
Additional information can be found in the following:
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