Evergreen, small to large tree up to 30 m, 1 m Ø, changing leaves before flowering. Innovations resinous. Twigs terete, thick, lenticellate. Leaves 1-pinnate, 8-12-jugate, 40-120cm; petiole thick, to 15 cm, rachis sharply keeled above, rounded beneath; leaflets entire, oblique, ovate-oblong, tipped, chartaceous, 10-20 by 5-8 cm, 3-5 mm stalked; nerves anterior side 9-12, posterior 6-9 pairs; beneath with scattered or heaped crateriform glands along the midrib. Thyrses up to 1 m, coarse, rachis hollow, 1 cm Ø; pedicels 2½ cm; bracteoles minute. Flowers with a soapy smell, pale yellowish, inside dull-purple shaded. Calyx 3-5 cm, densely covered with microscopical glands and besides with scattered, rimmed, dish-shaped, large glands; splitting into 5 irregular, crispately-crenulate, acute lobes, tube at base with keel-like folds, persistent. Corolla 5-7½ cm, thick, ± constricted above base, pubescent except at base; lobes imbricate in bud, in anthesis reflexed, broad-obovate, crenulate and crispate; anthers brown to nigrescent, cells divergent. Style long, with a 2-lobed, clavate stigma. Capsule stiped, 30-45 by 5-9 cm (incl. the 2-3 cm wide, often splitting wings), with a dorsal ridge, and a corky margin on which the wings; septum quadrangular in CS, contracted in the middle, corky. Seeds in rows on each margin of the septum, curved, 2¼-3 by ¾-l¼ cm (incl. the hyaline wings).
Lowland primary and secondary rainforest, in the Natuna Is. common, with plenty of seedlings, spared in coconut stands, elsewhere scattered, riverbanks, etc., mostly coastal, from sea-level to 100 m; in the Ghats recorded to 700 m altitude. Fl. Jan.-April, Aug.; fr. March-April, Aug.
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Primary and secondary lowland and hill forest. Scattered along rivers and along the edges of coastal forest.
Uses. GAMBLE ( GAMBLE Manual Ind. Timb. ed. 1922 1922 517 ) said it is a good timber with close-grained wood. PARKINSON l.c. found it common in the Andaman Is. where it is used for canoes, planking, and boat-building; timber smells like teak and seems to withstand attacks of white ants. KURZ (1870) recorded the largest tree with a trunk of 2 m Ø. In the Natuna Is. it is estimated for building boats.In the latter islands a decoction of leaves is used against fever; in Malaya a hot fermentation is applied on the body for stomach disorders ( BURKILL Diet. 1935 1623 ).
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