Guioa pleuropteris Radlk.

Shrub to tree, up to 30 m high, dbh 5-60 cm (to 2 m); no buttresses; outer bark smooth to sometimes irregularly fluted, usually dark brown, often mottled with white or grey spots; inner bark white to dark brown, finely fibrous; cambium yellow to brown; sap wood finely grained, soft to hard, white to yellow, without odour or sap. Branchlets especially hirsute (to sericeous) when young; flowering twigs 1-6 mm thick. Leaves (1-)2-5(-7)-jugate; rachis 0.8-25.3 cm long, (terete to) upwards flattened, usually (slightly) winged, wing up to 3 mm broad, sericeous to hirsute, petiole 0.6-9.3 cm long. Leaflets usually subsessile, opposite to alternate, lower often ovate, upper (elliptic to) obovate, 0.9-18.7 by 0.5-8.3 cm, index 0.5-4.3, asymmetrical, especially the base and the apex, acroscopic side broader, (sub)coriaceous, usually punctate; base (acute to cuneate to) attenuate; margin entire, flat (to re volute); apex (obtuse to) usually abruptly acuminate (to cuspidate), often mucronulate; upper surface (glabrous to) sparsely sericeous to hirsute; lower surface dull, papillate, (sub)sericeous to usually hirsute, domatia many pockets (or sacs) in axils of nerves, raised; venation on upper surface (slightly sunken to) flat to raised, usually con-colorous with lamina, below raised; midrib below raised, convex; nerves 0.2-4.9 cm apart, marginally looped and joined, less distinctly so in lower half of leaflets; veins laxly reticulate, usually distinct. Inflorescences axillary (to pseudoterminal), (unbranched to) branching basally and especially along the terete, usually brown hirsute, 0.5-21.6 cm long axis; first order branches up to 13.8 cm long; cymules cincinnate, 2-5-flowered; bracts and bracteoles (deltate to) triangular, outside sericeous, inside (sub)glabrous; bracts 0.7-3.8 mm long; bracteoles 0.2-1.5 mm long; pedicels 1.1-7 mm long, hirsute. Flowers 3-4.2 mm in diam., fragrant. Sepals 5, ovate, margin and less so outside pilose, margin with glands, inside (sub)glabrous, green to tinged reddish or whitish; 2 outer smaller ones 0.7-2.8 by 0.6-2 mm; 3 inner larger ones 1.5-3.5 by 0.9-3.3 mm, margin petaloid. Petals 5, (elliptic to) obovate, 1.3-3.5 by 0.7-2.2 mm, white; blade obovate, gradually decurrent into the 0.2-1 mm high claw, margin (and outside) pilose, inside glabrous, apex rounded (to acute); scales 0.8-2.2 mm long, free, apex not to hardly broadened; crest usually developed, a pilose flat part of the bifid scale apex, yellow. Disc (uninterrupted to) interrupted (gap often small). Stamens 8; filaments 1.3-5.1 mm long, pilose, especially basally, white; anthers 0.2-0.7 mm long, glabrous, pink. Pistil green; ovary 0.3-2.8 mm long, subhirsute; style and stigma 0.1-2.2 mm long. Fruits with 1-3 well developed lobes, 1-1.9 by 1-2.5 cm, smooth to somewhat ribbed to somewhat rugose-ruminate, glabrous, red when fresh, reddish (to blackish) when dry; stipe 2-5 mm high, slender; margin blunt; lobes 7.5-13 by 6.5-13 mm. Seeds globose to obovoid, 5.5-9.7 by 5-8 mm; hilum 1-3 mm long; arillode yellow to orange, edible, sour.

A tropical plant. It grows in secondary forest near 500-700 m altitude. It can grow up to 1,500 m above sea level.

Uses Wood is used for torches (Radlkofer, 1913); it is durable and elastic, but thin, therefore used in Indonesia as handles for axes and shafts of wagons and plows ( Heyne Nutt. Pl Indon. ed. 3 1950 1000 ). The roots are used medically in NE Piihang (Malaysia) in the form of a decoction against fever and stomach ache. The name pokok serawan burang probably refers to a medical use as ‘serawan’ = sprue ( Burk. Diet. Econ. Prod. Malay Penins. ed. 2 1966 1134 ). Also used to exterminate intestinal worms.

Plants can be grown from seeds.