''Diospyros venosa'' is a tree in the family

Ebenaceae The Ebenaceae are a family of flowering plants belonging to order Ericales. The family includes ebony and persimmon among about 768 species of trees and shrubs. It is distributed across the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. It ...

. It is native to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, from the

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. It provides raw material for handicrafts, traditional medicine and fuel.

Description

''Diospyros venosa'' grows as a tree, sometimes a shrub, from tall.

Inflorescences An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

bear up to 25 flowers. The fruits are ellipsoid to roundish, up to in diameter.

Taxonomy

The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

' is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

meaning "veined", referring to the leaf. ''D. venosa'' has an accepted infraspecific variety, ''D. venosa'' var. ''olivacea''. Within the genus ''Diospyros'', there is the geographically heterogenous clade XI, with sister species from India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

. ''D. venosa'' is a member along with '' D. ebenum'', '' D. ehretioides'', '' D. fasciculosa'', '' D. maritima'', '' D. pubicalyx'', '' D. styraciformis'', and '' D. wallichii''.

Distribution

''Diospyros venosa'' var. ''venosa'' is native to the

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

and Myanmar. The var. ''olivacea'' is endemic to Peninsular Malaysia.

Habitat

Its habitat is lowland mixed

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...

forests, though it occurs up to 1300m elevation. In the Guning Aias Forest Reserve,

Pahang Pahang (;Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Pahang Hulu Malay: ''Paha'', Pahang Hilir Malay: ''Pahaeng'', Ulu Tembeling Malay: ''Pahaq)'' officially Pahang Darul Makmur with the Arabic honorific ''Darul Makmur'' (Jawi: , "The Abode of Tranquility") is a ...

, Malaysia, the Lowland dipterocarp forest has a 30-40m tall canopy of trees in the

Anacardiaceae The Anacardiaceae, commonly known as the cashew family or sumac family, are a family of flowering plants, including about 83 genera with about 860 known species. Members of the Anacardiaceae bear fruits that are drupes and in some cases produce ...

Dipterocarpaceae Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

Sapotaceae 240px, '' Madhuca longifolia'' var. ''latifolia'' in Narsapur, Medak district, India The Sapotaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants belonging to the order (biology), order Ericales. The family includes about 800 species of ev ...

, and

Sterculiaceae Sterculiaceae was a family of flowering plant based on the genus ''Sterculia''. Genera formerly included in Sterculiaceae are now placed in the family Malvaceae, in the subfamilies: Byttnerioideae, Dombeyoideae, Helicteroideae and Sterculioideae. A ...

families. Amongst the understorey plants is ''D. venosa'' var. ''venosa''. Within the

Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve is a 1248 hectares forest reserve managed by Universiti Putra Malaysia located in Puchong, Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. The forest has actually been leased for 80 years to this university by the Selangor governm ...

, Selangor, ''D. venosa'' grows as a tree to 10m height, throughout the reserves from the Lowland dipterocarp forest to the lower montane forest at 1300m. The tree/shrub was one of the characteristic plants in the upper elevations (375-450m) ridge and slope community within the Seraya-ridge forest of the Semangkok Forest Reserve,

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

, Malaysia. The seraya-ridge forest is a subtype of Hill dipterocarp forest, characterised by the dipterocarp ''

Shorea curtisii ''Shorea curtisii'' (also called Seraya, and along with some other species in the genus ''Shorea'', dark red meranti) is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand ...

'' and the palm '' Eugeissona tristis'', the most common type of hill forest in Peninsular Malaysia.

Vernacular Names

In Malaysia it is known as ''kayu arang'' (a general name for ''Diospyros'' species). In the

Khmer language Khmer (; , ) is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language spoken by the Khmer people, and the Official language, official and national language of Cambodia. Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pāli, Pali, especiall ...

, ''angɔt kmao'' and ''ângkât' khmau slëk thôm'' refer to the plant.

Uses

Twigs from the plant are used as firewood. The ebony-like wood is used to make luxury knick-knacks. The roots are used in a traditional medicine decoction as a sedative, as well as a component of a tonic. Villagers living on the plateau of Phnom Kulen National Park, in Svay Leu District, Siem Reap Province, northwestern Cambodia, use the root and wood chips of the shrub in their traditional medicinal practices to improve post-partum care and circulation, to treat malaria, and to treat sexually transmitted diseases in women.

References

venosa Venosa ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, in the Vulture area. It is bounded by the comuni of Barile, Ginestra, Lavello, Maschito, Montemilone, Palazzo San Gervasio, ...

Plants described in 1844 Flora of Indo-China Flora of Malesia {{Ebenaceae-stub