''Xerospermum noronhianum'' is a common Asian tree species described by

Carl Ludwig von Blume Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume (9 June 1796 – 3 February 1862) was a German-Dutch botanist and entomologist who spent most of his professional life in the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. As deputy director of agricultu ...

: it is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

in the genus and belongs to the Family

Sapindaceae The Sapindaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1,858 accepted species. Examples include Aesculus, horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee. The ...

. ''X. noronhianum'' Blume is the accepted name and there are no subspecies listed in the

Catalogue of Life The Catalogue of Life (CoL) is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxono ...

. Morphologically, it is a very variable species, found in many kinds of

tropical forest Tropical forests are forested ecoregions with tropical climates – that is, land areas approximately bounded by the Tropic of Cancer, tropics of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing ...

s and soils, usually below 300 m altitude and rarely above 1000 m. Its light brown wood is hard and durable, often used in the construction of buildings.

Description

Tree: 25–30 m high when fully grown, often with

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act a ...

at the trunk base. Leaves:

Inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s up to 250 mm long if solitary, much shorter if tufted. Flowers: tetra

merous Merosity (from the greek "méros," which means "having parts")) refers to the number of component parts in a distinct whorl of a plant structure. The term is most commonly used in the context of a flower where it refers to the number of sepals in a ...

. Sepals free or slightly connate, the outer two usually slightly smaller than the inner ones, ovate to obovate, 1-3 by 1-2.4 mm, outside and inside

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

or hairy (nearly always inside at the base). Petals:

obovate The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets) ...

to broadly spathulate, 1-2.8 by 0.5-1.7 mm, short- to long-clawed with an ovate to transversely elliptic blade, variably woolly, nearly always with the exception of the base outside, inside often sparsely hairy to glabrous. Stamens: 8 (sometimes 9). Fruit: lobes

ellipsoid An ellipsoid is a surface that can be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional Scaling (geometry), scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a Surface (mathemat ...

to almost spherical: 17-50 by 12–50 mm, with a (very variable) rough, red or dark-brown surface. There is considerable (but continuous) variation in this species: of leaves, flowers, and especially the fruits.

Distribution and vernacular names

* Bangladesh * Burma (Myanmar): taung-kyetmauk. * India (Assam) * Indonesia: rambutan pacet (Malay), burundul, corogol monyet tjorogol monjet (Sundanese) * Laos: kho lên, ngèo * Malaysia: geresek hitam, gigi buntal, rambutan pachet (Peninsular), balong ayam, kata keran * Philippines * Thailand: kho laen (eastern), kho hia (south-eastern), laen ban (peninsular). * Viet Nam: Cây Trường

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18081547 Sapindaceae