Alstonia scholaris (L.) R.Br.

Medium-sized to big tree 10-50(-60) m high, 20-80(-130) cm dbh, fluted at the base or forming tall and steep buttresses up to 10 m high, spreading for up to 4 m at the base. Bark smooth, scaly or shallowly fissured and peeling off in rectangular flakes, fawn or light brown; inner bark granular, creamy, yellow or straw-coloured, with copious white latex. Branchlets glabrous. Leaves in whorls of 4-8(-9); petiole 5-20(-25) mm long, slightly winged, with intrapetiolar stipule at the base and 1-3 mm long, colleters narrowly triangular and densely packed together in the axils; blade narrowly elliptic to obovate, (5-)6-17(-22) by (1.5-)2.5-7.5(-8.5) cm, 1.7-4.5 times as long as wide, apex obtuse or rounded or often retuse (in young trees, the leaves usually much larger, shortly acuminate and with blunt acumen up to 1 cm long), base often decurrent onto the petiole, less often acute or obtuse, glabrous or velutinous beneath; 25-45(-55) pairs of secondary veins, rather straight, forming an angle of (70-)80-90° with the midrib, (1.5-)2-5(-7) mm from each other; tertiary venation reticulate, sometimes admedial ramified, conspicuous above. Inflorescence 4-13(-17) cm long, many-flowered, mostly formed of two dense bunches of flowers; pedicels 0-2 mm long, pubescent. Bracts and bracteoles scale-or sepal-like, ovate or narrowly ovate, acuminate or sometimes trilobed or irregularly lobed at the apex, 1-3 mm long, ciliate. Flowers fragrant. Sepals pale green, connate at the base for 0.3-0.7(-1) mm, ovate, 1.5-2.4 by 0.8-1.9 mm, obtuse, sometimes acute or mucronulate, pubescent outside, minutely pubescent or less often glabrous inside, erect, ciliate. Corolla lobes sinistrorse; white, yellow or cream, 7-12 mm long in the mature bud and forming an ovoid head, 2.5-3.5 by 1.7-2.4 mm; pubescent or partly pubescent outside (frequently glabrous on basal half, at least within the calyx); tube almost cylindrical, slightly widening around the anthers and at the base around the ovary, 7-10 by 0.8-1.6 mm; lobes broadly ovate or suborbicular, 3-5 by 2.5-4.5(-7) mm, 0.6-1.1 times as long as wide, pilose inside. Stamens inserted at 5.2-8.4 mm from the base; anthers ovate, 0.9-1.2 by 0.4-0.5 mm, obtuse. Pistil 6-9.5 mm long; ovary ovoid or broadly ovoid, 0.9-1.5 by 0.7-1 mm, densely pubescent, with or without a narrow disk-like thickening at the base; style 4.2-8 mm; style head pagoda shape, 0.5-1 mm high, glabrous, with an elongate and robust cleft stigmoid apical part 0.3-0.7 mm high. Fruit a pair of follicles, 20-40(-63) cm by c. 2(-2.5) mm, glabrous. Seeds dark brown, oblong, 4.5-5.5(-7) by 1.2-1.6(-2) mm, glabrous on both sides, ends rounded; margin slightly thickened, longest cilia 8-12(-14) mm long, becoming much shorter or glabrous towards the margins.

It is a subtropical plant. It grows in the wet zone. It grows in coastal areas in Papua New Guinea. In southern China it grows between 200-1,000 m above sea level. In XTBG Yunnan.

UsesThis species is the most important source of the pulai timber. This timber is used for household items and the pulp makes a high quality paper. As it is so light it can be used for fishing net floats. It can be used for the treatment of diarrhoea and stomach ache, snake bites, and for treating Herpes zoster by applying the latex on the affected parts. The tree is also sometimes used as an ornamental.

Plants can be grown by seeds or cuttings.