Common Names
"Kayu china, Sabah, Lahad Datu, iguh gawah, Iban, Merurong Plateau" (1).Taxonomic notes
Syn: Podocarpus falciformis Parlatore 1868; Nageia falciformis (Parl.) O.K. 1891; Dacrydium falciforme (Parlatore) Pilger 1903 (1).Description
"Large shrub from 1.5 m to occasionally a large tree as much as 36 m tall, more commonly 5-12 m, 4-40 cm diam. Seedling leaves widening gradually from a petiole several mm long to margins parallel in the middle of the leaf, apex more abrupt, acute, apiculate, midrib a low blunt ridge above and a narrow sharp ridge below, slightly revolute, 4-9 by 2-3.5 mm. Juvenile leaves on the first branches only slightly longer and wider than the seedling but soon becoming as much as 12 cm long and more gradually becoming as much as 12 mm wide, the lanceolate apex strongly curved so as to become parallel to the shoot, midribs on either side a weak ridge. Adult shade leaves spreading at a large angle with more or less parallel margins in the centre of the leaves and broadly lanceolate apex which curves strongly forward but still at an angle from the shoot, 4-7 cm by 5-9 mm. Adult sun leaves much more abrupt at both ends so as to form a broad lens shape to almost a parallelogram with rounded corners, 2-4 cm long by 5-7 mm wide, the apex sometimes not bent forward. Pollen cones 2-4 cm long by 2.5-3.5 mm diam. Receptacle of seed-bearing structure 4-5 mm long; mature seed 6-7 mm long, 5 mm wide, and 3.5-4 mm thick, becoming black" (1).Range
Malaya; Riouw-Lingga Archipelago (Lingga: P. Tanda); Borneo (mainly Sarawak and Sabah). "Locally common along ridges as a bushy tree or in the subcanopy of primary rain-forest, often on podsol sands and kerangas, but occasionally on deeper fertile soils a somewhat emergent forest giant, from 400-2100 m" (1).Big Tree
Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Observations
Remarks
"In the forests of Mt Kinabalu the juvenile plants have smaller leaves than elsewhere, but otherwise there do not appear to be any differences. Several collections of more or less juvenile material have been made in Celebes and Central Moluccas (Obi), but these resemble more F. gruezoi of the Philippines. A single specimen from high kerangas on the Usan Apan Plateau in Sarawak has leaves in the form of adult shade leaves, but these are only 6 by 2 mm. It is called a 'young tree' but given as 24 m tall. This may well be a new species" (1).Citations
(1) de Laubenfels 1988.See also de Laubenfels 1969, Dallimore & Jackson 1967.
[Falcatifolium] [Podocarpaceae] [home]
This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2285/po/fa/falciforme.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.net
Last modified on 21-Dec-98