Sindora laotica Gagnep. - CAESALPINIACEAE

Synonym : Sindora kontumensis Gagnep.

English   Lao   

Botanical descriptions Habitat and ecology Distribution

Botanical descriptions :

Diagnostic characters : Deciduous trees, bark smooth, hoped at the base. Exudate resinous. Leaves compound, rachis swollen at the base. Flowers in panicles, yellow-green, bisexual. Fruit an ovoid-round spiny, flattened pod often with blobs of white resin.
Habit : Large deciduous tree up to 45 m height, 1m in DBH. Branches ascending to the main trunk.
Trunk & bark : Trunk straight. Bark smooth, slightly hooped at base, lenticelled, outer bark 1 cm thick, light brown, white wood.
Branches and branchlets or twigs : Twigs terete, glabrous, light brown densely hairy when young, greenish-brown becoming dark brown when dry.
Exudates : Exudate resinous on fruits, white when dry.
Leaves : Leaves paripinnately compound, alternate, rachis 7-15 cm, pulvinate, leaflets 2-3 pairs, opposite, 10 x 5 cm, ovate to elliptic, slightly asymmetric, apex acuminate, base rounded or attenuate, margin entire, blade coriaceous, shiny, glabrous.
Midrib canaliculated above, prominent below, slightly arched, secondary veins oblique to the midrib, widely parallel, tertiary veins oblique. Petiolule 3-4 mm.
Stipules present, triangular, slightly rounded at base, tip strongly acute, and falling up soon.
Inflorescences or flowers : Flowers grouped in terminal or axillary panicles, densely velutinous with fawn hairs. Flowering bud ovoid with small spines on calyx.
Fruits : Fruits are woody pods 6-8 x 3-4 cm, armed with numerous stout spines, dark brown when dry, widely elliptic, with strong and sharp beak at the end; the spines have white resin at their extremity.
Seeds : Seed 1-3, black and glossy.

Habitat and ecology :

Found in evergreen and degraded forest along the road, from 300 to 1000 m altitude. Flowering in March to April, fruiting from April to November.

Distribution :

Vietnam, Laos (Khammouane, Vientiane (Type) provinces).

Remark/notes/uses :
The wood is used for construction.

Specimens studied :
BT 25 (Herbarium of Faculty of Sciences-NUoL, NHN-Leiden and CIRAD-Montpellier).

Literature :
K. Larsen, S.S. Larsen & J.E. Vidal. 1980. Leguminosae- Caesalpiniaceae. Flore du Cambodge, Laos et Vietnam, No 18. Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle.

Top of the page