Dimocarpus Lour.

Trees or shrubs, mostly monoecious. Indumentum often partly or mainly consisting of dense tufts of hairs; no glandular scales. Leaves spirally arranged, paripinnate, rarely unifoliolate, 1-7-jugate, hairy, often glabrescent; without pseudo-stipules; neither petiole nor rachis winged. Leaflets (opposite or) alternate, not or hardly papillose beneath, lower side often with naked glands; base equal-sided to oblique; margin entire to dentate. Inflorescences terminal and sometimes in the upper leaf-axils. Flowers unisexual, actin-omorphic. Sepals 5 (or 6), confluent at base, imbricate, equal, not petaloid, outside densely tomentose, inside short-hairy at least in the upper part, not ciliate, entire. Petals 0-5 (or 6), mostly longer than sepals, ± oblanceolate, no scale. Disc entire, 5-lobed, hairy. Stamens (6-)8(-10), either equal (mostly) or more or less distinctly alternately long and short, exserted or not; filaments usually hairy, often tufted; anthers glabrous. Pistil sessile, 2-(or 3-)merous; ovary broadly cordate, tuberculate, hairy, usually each wart crowned by a hair tuft; style slender, slightly shorter to longer than the ovary, variably hairy at least in the lower half, hairs mostly tufted; stigma with spreading lobes. Ovules 1 per cell, attached axillary near the base. Pistillode small, densely pilose. Infructescences with thickened and sometimes lengthened pedicels; calyx persistent under the fruit, slightly or not accrescent. Fruits: nearly always only 1 lobe developed, globular or broad-ellipsoid, indehiscent or sometimes loculicidal, warty, sometimes smooth, rarely spiny, mostly gla-brescent, inside smooth, glabrous. Seeds ± globular; hilum subbasal, nearly orbicular, big; testa shining blackish brown, with a thin, translucent-white, fleshy arillode which is attached around the hilum.

Uses The fruits, especially of D. longan subsp. longan, are esteemed by the Chinese and others, and that subspecies is often planted, especially outside the area in which true Rambutans can grow. The wood of some species seems to be of good quality, but it is used only locally; it may be that sizeable stems are often hollow.