Fagraea auriculata Jack

Epiphytic, more rarely terrestrial, shrub or climber, with age sometimes becoming a small to medium-sized tree (up to 20 m by c. 25 cm ø). Twigs often sharply 4-angled, each ridge crowned by a small acute spine (which in large specimens may be developed into a small extra auricle). Leaves mostly distinctly petioled, varying from narrowly oblanceolate to oblong or obovate, 9-40(-60) by 4-25 cm, usually thickly coriaceous, base broadly cuneate to narrowly acute, more or less decurrent, apex rounded to acute, mostly terminated by a narrowly triangular, acute acumen; nerves 5-20 pairs, often inconspicuous to invisible; petiole robust, often about quadrangular in cross-section, 2-4(-8) cm, at the base (faintly to) distinctly auriculate, auricles about orbicular, somewhat convex, appressed to the twig; axillary scale for the greater part adnate to the petiole, loosely appressed to the twig, 0.5-0.75 cm long, fairly broad, rounded to slightly 2-lobed at the apex. Flowers solitary or in 2-7-flowered cymes; pedicels robust, 1-5 cm, quite near the top or somewhat lower down with 1 or 2 pairs of appressed, small to fairly large bracteoles. Calyx campanulate, 2-7.5 cm long, mostly divided to near the base, sometimes only slightly more than halfway down. Corolla thin to very thickly fleshy-leathery (in the herbarium sometimes nearly woody), tube widely to narrowly funnel-shaped, 4.5-15 cm, limb wide-spreading (in the fresh state the whole corolla may be up to nearly 30 cm long and more than 30 cm across). Anthers bifid to about the middle or somewhat lower down, elliptic to oblong, 0.75-2 cm, thick. Stigma peltate, flat or slightly hollowed, 4-8 mm ø (in vivo up to 2 cm). Fruits oblong-ellipsoid to ovoid, crowned by the persistent style-base, 6-15 cm long, greyish-white when ripe, dehiscing with 4 lobes; seeds embedded in an orange to red pulpa (which is derived from the placentas); calyx somewhat accrescent, mostly more or less spreading.

In primary and secondary rain-forests, often along clearings, river-banks, paths, etc., sometimes in mangrove swamps on tidal waterways, on coastal rocks, in alang-alang fields and scrub, from sea-level up to 1500(-1900) m.

Uses. The sticky fluid under the epidermis of the fruit is used in Sumatra as a glue, especially as a bird-lime. Forms with large flowers are cultivated as ornamentals.