Xanthophyllum obscurum A.W.Benn.

Tree, up to 47 m, 70 cm dbh. Twigs often strongly thickened on the nodes and with adventitious buds. Nodal glands usually distinct, sometimes elongate, c. 0.5 mm diam. Petiole 5-11 (-15) mm. Leaf-blade (4—)7.5—17 by (1.5-)3.5-9cm, apex rounded to obtuse or sometimes very shortly acuminate; above dark or greyish redbrown, rarely green, midrib flat to protruding; beneath concolorous or darker than above, midrib prominent or flat, secondary nerves c. (3-)6-9 pairs, sometimes in upper part forming an intramarginal nerve; glands 2-16, usually situated near or on the margin of the leaf, (0.2-)0.5-0.7 (-1.2) mm diam. Inflorescences sometimes also on the older nodes, shorter than the leaves; axes angular, black, glabrous to sparsely shortly lanate. Pedicel 3-11 mm, glabrous to sparsely hairy. Sepals black; outer sepals 2.8-5.5 by 2.8-6 mm; inner sepals 4-7.5 by 3.5-7 mm. Petals unequal, white or purple, the upper ones with a yellow or green spot, when dry black, inside glabrous or rather densely woolly hairy above insertion of filaments and at apex, the longest one 14-19 mm; carina boat-shaped, 9.5-16 mm long; lateral petals more or less spathulate, distinctly longer than upper petals and carina; upper petals more or less linear, flat to slightly channelled, curved upwards. Stamens 7.5-12 mm long; filaments connate for (0.1-)l-3 mm, glabrous in basal part, free parts of filaments lanate in basal part, hairs often intertwined, thus forming a fila-mental 'tube', glabrous upwards; anthers 0.7-1.7 mm long, glabrous to minutely hairy, free or attached to each other around the stigma. Ovary black, glabrous; style black, glabrous; ovules 8-18. Fruit globular, very large, the largest up to 14 cm diam., dull pinkish brown, with numerous small dark spots; pericarp 0.5-2 cm thick. Seeds 8-16, sticking together in drying like a ball, each c. 2-6 cm wide; testa 2-layered, outer layer thick, soft, fibrous, inner layer c. 0.1 mm thick; albumen nearly absent, usually visible only at base; embryo thick, triangular in side view, plumule and radicle situated in the very centre of the embryo, the plumule differentiated into a number of decussate scales; cotyledons seemingly peltate, peripherically with numerous vessel-like elements forming a regularly reticulate pattern.

Undisturbed mixed dipterocarp, keranga and sub-montane rain forests at elevations up to 1,000 metres. On hillsides and ridges with clay to sandy soils. In secondary forests usually present as a pre-disturbance remnant.

The fruit have a sweet white pulp which is eaten.

Can be grown by seedlings.