English Lao
Botanical descriptions Habitat and ecology Distribution
| Diagnostic characters : | Bark slightly fissured, bark fibres penetrating into the wood. Flowers unisexual on the same plant, male in spike-like catkins, female, sessile, densely clustered on lateral or subtermial spikes. Fruit an acorn, cupule covering 1/2 to 2/3 of the acorn, with a few hairs at the top. |
| Habit : | Evergreen tree up to 30 m high, 45-100 cm in diameter. Branches ascending to the main trunk. |
| Trunk & bark : | Trunk straight. Bark smooth, slightly fissured, light brown or grey to dark brown, inner bark yellowish. |
| Branches and branchlets or twigs : | Twigs terete, brown, glabrous. |
| Exudates : | Exudate absent. |
| Leaves : | Leaves simple alternate and spiral, 14-18 by 6-7.5 cm, oblong or elliptic-oblong or oboblong, apex obtuse, acuminate, base acute or attenuate, margin entire, blade leathery to coriaceous, young leaves abaxially pubescent with short hairs, becoming glabrous on both sides when mature. Midrib canaliculated above, primary vein single, secondary veins oblique to the midrib, widely parallel, tertiary veins oblique. Petiole long and glabrous. |
| Inflorescences or flowers : | Inflorescence rachis tawny tomentose with short hairs. Flowers unisexual on the same plant, male flowers grouped in spike-like catkins at apex of twigs, female, sessile, densely clustered on lateral or subtermial spikes. |
| Fruits : | Fruitescence in very dense spike, cupule sessile with connate bracts, often united by 3 to 5 and enveloped at 1/2 to 2/3, generally bracts triangular, appressed and imbricate, a few spreading, young fruit greenish. Fruit is an acorn 1.9-2.0 by 1-1.8 cm, depressed globose to subglobose, or turbinately pyriforme. |
| Seeds : | Seed 1. |