Styrax benzoin Dryand.

Tree 8-34 m, trunk 10-100 cm diam., buttresses small or absent; bark wine-red in section, 3-7 mm, wood white. Leaves ovate to oblong or lanceolate, base rounded, apex acuminate, 8-13 by 2½-5 cm; petiole sulcate 5-13 mm; nerves 7-13 pairs. Flowers fragrant, in 6-11 cm long panicles often forming a leafy panicle 13-20 cm long. Buds solid, blunt. Pedicels 1½-4 mm, top-shaped. Corolla lobes 9-12 by 2-3½ mm, tube 1-2 mm high. Staminal tube 2½-4 mm, anthers 5 and 5¼ mm long. Ovary 8-12½ mm high. Fruit depressed-globose 2-2¼ by 2¼-3 cm, indehiscent; pericarp (3-)4-5 mm diam., subtended by a rarely appressed calyx 7-13 mm diam. Seed 1(-2), ca 15 by 19 mm, dull pale brown; hilum 3-6 mm diam., in var. hiliferum 10-12 mm diam.

In mixed primary forests, often common, mostly on fertile soils; fl. &fr. not periodic, Jan.-Dec. Germination preferably in the shadow. Several gall forms are described, all of the saccate type. The fruit is eaten by swine and deer.

Uses. Cultivated in Sumatra (mostly Palem-bang and Tapanuli Res.), Java (also in monsoon climate) and W. Borneo, often in clearings; therefore, the tree occurs frequently gregarious in old secondary forests. Sumatrans often soak the fruit before planting, or peel them. Yields red benzoin, mostly consisting of benzoic acid. Resin can be drawn from 7 years old saplings. Wood worthless.

Plants can be grown from seeds.