Castanopsis oviformis Soepadmo

Tree, 15-30 m by 20-45 cm ø; buttresses small, sometimes branched; bark smooth or shallowly fissured, greyish brown, lenticellate. Branchlets initially with brownish, adpressed stellate indumentum, late glabrescent; rather slender, grey-brownish or dark-purplish, sparsely set with minute lenticels; terminal bud ovoid-globose, 2-3 by 2 mm, scales ovate, linear, acute. Stipules ovate-acute, 3-5 by 2-3 mm. Leaves sometimes tending to distichy, more or less thinly coriaceous, 6-15 by 4-6½ cm (index 2.2-3), widest somewhat below to somewhat above the middle; base ± rounded and acute, top mostly rounded and abruptly acuminate with a tip of ½-1 cm; surfaces green-brownish, above very glossy, glabrous, beneath sometimes dull, very sparsely to very densely set with adpressed stellate scales (magnification 30-60!), sometimes with a few stellate hairs on the nerves; midrib prominent beneath, flattish or slightly elevated above; nerves 8-13 pairs at an angle of 60-80°, ascending, parallel, arcuating towards the margin; reticulation dense, fine, scalariform, distinct underneath; petiole 1-1½ cm, adaxially flat. Male rachis 5-15 cm, 1-2 mm ø, bracts ovate-acute, 1-1½ by 1 mm; ♂ flowers in clusters of 3-7, perianth deeply incised, lobes 6, 1-1% mm long, acute, with dense tomentum outside, stamens usually 12, filaments 1-1½ mm, anthers ¼ mm long. Female rachis 5-10 cm, androgynous inflorescence with ♂ flowers in its apical part; bracts 1½-2 by 1-1½ mm, with dense tomentum; ♀ flowers solitary, perianth deeply incised, lobes 6, ovate-acute, 1 by 1 mm, with dense tomentum outside, staminodes 12, rudimentary, styles 3, cylindrical-conical, 2 mm. Cupule ¾-1 cm stalked, ellipsoid to obovoid, with tapering base, 2½-5 by 1½-3 cm, wall ½-1 mm thick, sparsely puberulous, spines arranged in arching lines on both sides of the cupule except on the adaxial sector, solitary or in bundles, sparsely set and 2-3 mm long to rather densely set and 8-10 mm long, unbranched, sturdy, straight to somewhat recurved, densely fulvous-puberulous; dehiscence irregular or in two equal halves. Fruit solitary, 2-3½ by 1½-2 cm, obo-void-cylindrical, wall ½-1 mm thick, completely adnate to the cupule, rugose, glabrous; cotyledons flat-convex.

A mid-canopy tree in primary forest, sometimes kerangas forest, at low elevations, but also extending to 1,200 metres in montane forests; found on alluvial sites and along rivers as well as on hillsides and ridges, usually on sandy loamy soils.

The nuts are edible but somewhat bitter.

Can be grown by seedlings.