''Homalium brevidens'' is a

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

or tree species in the family

Salicaceae The Salicaceae are the willow family of flowering plants. The traditional family (Salicaceae ''sensu stricto'') includes the willows, poplars. Genetic studies summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) have greatly expanded the circumsc ...

, found in

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

and

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

. It grows 2-6m tall, with simple broad leaves, and is found in flooded forests in Cambodia. These forests, also known as ''swamp forests'', is a community where the trees are usually 7-15(-20)m tall, that occurs along the shores of the lake Tonle Sap and nearby rivers, and is flooded to a maximum of 4-6m of water for up to 8 months per year. The 2 main species of tree in these forests are '' Barringtonia acutangula'' and '' Diospyros cambodiana'', with ''H. brevidens'' one of the other common tree species. On islands of the

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River ( , ) is a transboundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth-longest river and the third-longest in Asia with an estimated length of and a drainage area of , discharging of wat ...

, in Steung Treng and Kratie provinces, north-central Cambodia, the tree occurs with medium abundance in the Riverine Strand vegetation zone (last to be flooded, first to be exposed). Here it contributes to a closed canopy, growing above metamorphic sandstone bedrock at an elevation of 25-30m above sea level. On these islands it flowers from June to July, and fruits from September to October. The plant is known as ''rotèang'' or ''stiëw'' in Khmer. Wood from the shrub is used to make charcoal, its bark is used to caulk boats.

References

brevidens Flora of Laos Flora of Cambodia Plants described in 1916 Taxa named by François Gagnepain {{Salicaceae-stub