Guioa koelreuteria Merr.

Shrub to tree, 2-16 m high, dbh 2-50 cm; outer bark brown to dark greyish, smooth (to rough), inner pink to red-brown, fibrous; sap wood white to brownish, odourless, tasteless, rings slightly visible. Branchlets especially sericeous (to hirsute) when young; flowering twigs 1-7 mm thick. Leaves 1-6-jugate; rachis 2.4-20.5 cm long, terete to flattened and broadened (to slightly winged), subglabrous (to subhirsute), petiole 1-8 cm long; petiolules 0-0.7 cm long. Leaflets usually subsessile opposite to alternate, ovate (to elliptic), 2.8-17.8 by 0.9-5.4 cm, index 1.7-5.7, usually asymmetrical, acroscopic side broader, (very) coriaceous, usually punctate; base attenuate; margin entire, flat (to revolute); apex (obtuse to) usually gradually acuminate to caudate, very apex (acute to) mucronulate; upper surface glabrous to subhirsute; lower surface duller, smooth (to slightly papillate), glabrous to subsericeous (to hirsute), domatia absent to many small sacs (to pockets) on basiscopic side in axils of nerves; venation on upper surface (flat to) raised, usually concolorous with lamina, below raised; nerves 0.2-2.5 cm apart, marginally looped and joined; veins laxly reticulate, usually distinct. Inflorescences axillary (to pseudoterminal), unbranched to branching basally and along the slightly flattened, brown (sub)sericeous (to hirsute), 0.8-20.5 cm long axis; first order branches up to 9.8 cm long; cymules cincinnate (see note 4;., 2-5(-8)-flowered; bracts and bracteoles triangular, outside sericeous, inside subglabrous; bracts 0.5-1.5 mm long; bracteoles 0.2-1 mm long; pedicels 1.4-7 mm long, sericeous except for the usually subglabrous articulate part. Flowers Z2-A mm in diam. Sepals 5, ovate, margin pilose, with glands, outside and inside (sub)glabrous, pink; 2 outer smaller ones 1-3.1 by 1-3.3 mm; 3 inner larger ones 1.5-3.8 by 1.2-4 mm, margin petaloid. Petals 5, (elliptic to) obovate, 1.8-3.8 by 1-2.5 mm (see note 4), creamy white (to reddish); blade obovate, gradually decurrent into the 0.4-1.3 mm high claw, margin (and outside) pilose, inside (sub)glabrous, apex retuse to acute; scales 0.9-2.1 mm long, free, basally not auriculate, membranous margin indistinct, apex not to hardly broadened; crest (absent to) a pilose, flat part of the bifid scale apex (to somewhat swollen and clavate). Disc interrupted. Stamens 8 (or 9); filaments 1.2-5 mm long, pilose, especially basally; anthers 0.3-0.6 mm long, glabrous to pilose. Pistil: ovary 0.2-2.4 mm long, subhirsute; style and stigma 0.1-2.7 mm long. Fruits with 1-3 well developed lobes, 1-2.2 by 1-2.3 cm, completely dehiscent, smooth, glabrous, red when fresh, blackish when dry; stipe 2-5.5 mm high, slender; margin blunt; lobes 6.5-13 by 7-12 mm; septa complete. Seeds (globose to) obovoid, 5 3-8.5 by 5-7.5 mm; hilum 1-2.3 mm long; arillode with pseudo-funicle, edible.

Primary, and especially in secondary, forest, ridge forest, thickets, on heath, along the seashore, roads, streams, edges of plantations at elevations from sea level up to 1,350 metres.

Uses The wood is used for agricultural implements and tool handles (Reyes in Desch, 1954). OH extracted from the seeds can be used to cure certain skin diseases ( Guerrero Brown Useful Pl. Philipp. 2 1950 363 ).

Can be grown by seedlings.