Strychnos ignatii P.J.Bergius

Large liana (in Borneo sometimes a shrub or treelet); twigs glabrous; branches greyish brown, more or less scabrous. Leaves ovate or elliptic to lanceolate, 4-18(-22) by 2¼-9(-12) cm, thin-to coriaceous-chartaceous, glabrous, acute to rounded at the base, always slightly attenuate, apex distinctly acuminate, acumen up to 1.75 cm long, slender and blunt or acute; triplinerved at or above the base; petiole 0.5-1 cm. Inflorescences axillary, mostly in the axils of already fallen leaves, laxly branched, 2-4(-7) cm long, with some 10-20 flowers, minutely pubescent. Calyx 1-1.5 mm high, sepals ovate, acute, outside densely minutely tomentose, inside glabrous. Corolla salver-shaped, 7-17 mm long, tube 5-12 mm, inside in the lower half with some long woolly hairs. Stamens inserted in the mouth, filaments short, anthers deeply cleft, oblong, 1.25-2 mm long, apiculate, glabrous. Ovary globular, c. 1 mm ø, glabrous; style c. 5-12 mm, glabrous or rarely with a few long woolly hairs about the middle; stigma truncate. Fruits few on strongly thickened branches, (ellipsoid to) globular, 4-12 cm ø, pericarp up to 5 mm thick, hard and woody, smooth and glabrous. Seeds usually several, either lenticular, elliptic to orbicular, c. 20-35 by 16-20 by 8-9 mm, and silky to felty (Fig. 28g), or irregular castorbean-shaped, c. 2 by 1 by 1 cm, rough but glabrous (Fig. 28j). Pericarp up to 1½ cm thick.

Open woodlands on limestone, scrub, sometimes along river banks at elevations from 400-800 metres. Usually found in dense forest, often in dipterocarp forest on sandy soil or in mixed rain forest, sometimes on river banks.

Uses. The seeds are the Saint Ignatius beans of commerce, one of the sources of strychnine. The bark and the seeds are used as a febrifuge in the Philippines. In the Malay Peninsula, Java, and Borneo the roots are used for poisoning arrows; moreover, in the Malay Peninsula a fish-poison is made from it.

Can be grown by seedlings.